Detection of liquid xenon scintillation light with a Silicon Photomultiplier

Abstract

We have studied the feasibility of a silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) to detect liquid xenon (LXe) scintillation light. The SiPM was operated inside a small volume of pure LXe, at -95 degree Celsius, irradiated with an internal Am-241 alpha source. The gain of the SiPM at this temperature was estimated to be 1.8 x 10^6 with bias voltage at 52 V. Based on the geometry of the setup, the quantum efficiency of the SiPM was estimated to be 22% at the Xe wavelength of 178 nm. The low excess noise factor, high single photoelectron detection efficiency, and low bias voltage of SiPMs make them attractive alternative UV photon detection devices to photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) for liquid xenon detectors, especially for experiments requiring a very low energy detection threshold, such as neutralino dark matter searches.