Radiation tolerance survey of selected silicon photomultipliers to high energy neutron irradiation

A key feature of silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) that can hinder their wider use in medium and high energy physics applications is their relatively high sensitivity to high energy background radiation, with particular regard to high energy neutrons. Dosages of 10¹⁰ n_eq/cm² can damage them severely. In this study, some standard versions along with some new formulations are irradiated with a high intensity ²⁴¹AmBe source up to a total dose of 5 × 10⁹ n_eq/cm². Key parameters monitored include dark noise, photon detection efficiency (PDE), gain, and voltage breakdown. Only dark noise was found to change significantly for this range of dosage. Analysis of the data indicates that within each vendor´s product line, the change in dark noise is very similar as a function of increasing dose. At present, the best strategy for alleviating the effects of radiation damage is to cool the devices to minimize the effects of increased dark noise with accumulated dose.