VSiPMT for underwater neutrino telescopes

Underwater neutrino telescopes are nowadays considered among the most important aims in the field of astroparticle physics. Their structure consists of a cubic-kilometer three-dimensional array of photosensitive devices aimed at the detection of the Cherenkov light emitted by charged particles produced by high energy neutrino interactions with the Earth. To date, a crucial role in this kind of experiments has been played by PhotoMultiplier Tubes (PMTs), however they suffer from many drawbacks such as linearity-to-gain relationship and difficulty in single photon counting. The next generation of experiments will require further improvements in photon detectors performances, therefore alternatives to PMTs are currently under study. In particular the most promising development in this field is represented by the rapidly emerging CMOS p-n Geiger-mode avalanche photodiode technology (G-APD or SiPM), that will allow the detection of highspeed single photons with high gain and linearity. In order to overcome the limit of small sensitive surfaces we suggest an innovative design for a modern hybrid, high gain, silicon based Vacuum Silicon Photomultiplier Tube (VSiPMT) based on the combination of a SiPM with a hemispherical vacuum glass PMT standard envelope. In this work we describe the full SiPM characterization realized by our group and we present the results of our Geant4-based simulations of electron backscattering over the SiPM surface. © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.