Scintillation detectors for operation in high magnetic fields: Recent developments based on arrays of avalanche microchannel photodiodes

The development of scintillation detectors to be used in a high-magnetic-field environment requires novel photodetectors to substitute photomultiplier tubes (PMTs). Avalanche microchannel photodiodes (AMPDs) are competitive to PMTs in terms of gain and photon detection efficiency, and they are insensitive to magnetic fields. But the small active area of an AMPD (typically from 1 to 10 mm 2 ) could restrict the field of applications for such a photosensor. In this work we demonstrate that the above restriction can be, to a certain extent, overcome by using AMPD arrays: based on an array of four ( 1 × 1 mm 2 ) AMPDs we built scintillation detectors with promising characteristics.