학술논문

Measurement of the Parametrized Single-Photon Response Function of a Large Area Picosecond Photodetector for Time-of-Flight PET Applications
Document Type
Periodical
Source
IEEE Transactions on Radiation and Plasma Medical Sciences IEEE Trans. Radiat. Plasma Med. Sci. Radiation and Plasma Medical Sciences, IEEE Transactions on. 5(5):651-661 Sep, 2021
Subject
Nuclear Engineering
Engineered Materials, Dielectrics and Plasmas
Bioengineering
Computing and Processing
Fields, Waves and Electromagnetics
Photonics
Timing
Detectors
Cathodes
Arrays
Scintillators
Readout electronics
Large area picosecond photodetector (LAPPD)
laser
micro channel plate photomultiplier
positron emission tomography (PET)
time of flight (TOF)
transit time spread (TTS)
Language
ISSN
2469-7311
2469-7303
Abstract
We have used a subpicosecond laser with an output trigger synched to a 4-GHz oscilloscope sampling at 25 GSa/s to characterize the temporally resolved response of a large area picosecond photodetector (LAPPD) to single photons/photoelectrons. The LAPPD is a large area (20 cm $\times20$ cm) photosensor with a nanosecond-width time response arising from its underlying multichannel plate photomultiplier tube (MCP-PMT) structure. We used optical filters to attenuate the laser pulse intensity to a single-photon level. LAPPD pulses are nearly identical in shape, particularly for pulses whose peak amplitude is a large multiple of our system’s 0.6-mV rms baseline electronic noise. Three waveform timing algorithms were compared in their measurements of the transit time spread (TTS) Gaussian fitted to the distribution of measured single-photoelectron (SPE) pulse times under zero-width laser excitation: 1) a constant fraction algorithm; 2) a pulse centroid timing algorithm; and 3) a pulse model-fitting algorithm. The measured SPE values with the three algorithms are: [79±17, 67±15, and 82±20] ps Gaussian sigma, respectively. The LAPPD provides independent voltage control for its photocathode (PC), and at the entry and entry faces of its chevron pair of MCPs. We found no or minimal change in TTS with PC voltage for pulses >15 mV.