Vacuum silicon photomultipliers: Recent developments

VSiPMT (Vacuum Silicon PhotoMultiplier Tube) is an innovative design for a modern hybrid, high gain, silicon based photodetector based on the combination of a SiPM with a hemispherical vacuum glass PMT standard envelope. In such a device photoelectrons emitted by the photocathode are accelerated and focused by an electric field towards a small focal area covered by the SiPM which therefore acts as an amplifier, thus substituting the classical dynode chain of a PMT. With a view to the realization of a first prototype of VSiPMT our group is carrying out a preliminary work aimed at the study of SiPM performances as an electron detector, including an accurate Geant4-based simulation of the interaction between SiPM and electron beams. In order to perform a full characterization of the SiPM we developed an experimental setup for the extraction and the acceleration of a beam of backward secondary electrons emitted after the bombardment of a carbon foil by a proton beam extracted in a TTT-3 accelerator. © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.