Cryogenic performance and long-term stability of Hamamatsu R8520-506 photomultiplier tubes in liquid argon
Abstract
Seven Hamamatsu R8520-506 photomultiplier tubes were characterized at room temperature and in liquid argon to evaluate their response and operating stability for liquid-argon light readout. A 405~nm pulsed light source was used to measure gain, peak-to-valley ratio, single-photoelectron charge resolution, and afterpulsing, while dark-count data were acquired with random triggers in the absence of active illumination. Gain and dark-count stability were monitored during a ten-day operating period in liquid argon. At a motherboard input voltage of 900~V, the extracted gains in liquid argon were approximately 27.8\%--51.3\% higher than the corresponding room-temperature values. For all seven tubes, the peak-to-valley ratios were higher and the single-photoelectron charge resolution improved in liquid argon. The dark count rates ranged from approximately 143 to 252~Hz at room temperature and from 166 to 199~Hz in liquid argon, with three tubes showing increases and four showing decreases. The mean number of detected afterpulses per selected primary event was approximately 21.0\%--63.6\% lower in liquid argon. The relative standard deviations across the ten daily means of gain and dark count rate did not exceed approximately 2.1\% and 3.3\%, respectively. The measurements provide a quantitative basis for considering R8520-506 tubes as photosensor candidates for liquid-argon detectors.
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BibTeX
@misc{yin2026cryogenic,
title = {{Cryogenic performance and long-term stability of Hamamatsu R8520-506 photomultiplier tubes in liquid argon}},
author = {Jilong Yin and Gaoshuang Li and Yike Shu and Yi Wang},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.27718},
eprint = {2609.27718},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.27718},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Cryogenic performance and long-term stability of Hamamatsu R8520-506 photomultiplier tubes in liquid argon
AU - Jilong Yin
AU - Gaoshuang Li
AU - Yike Shu
AU - Yi Wang
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/23
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.27718
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.27718
AB - Seven Hamamatsu R8520-506 photomultiplier tubes were characterized at room temperature and in liquid argon to evaluate their response and operating stability for liquid-argon light readout. A 405~nm pulsed light source was used to measure gain, peak-to-valley ratio, single-photoelectron charge resolution, and afterpulsing, while dark-count data were acquired with random triggers in the absence of active illumination. Gain and dark-count stability were monitored during a ten-day operating period in liquid argon. At a motherboard input voltage of 900~V, the extracted gains in liquid argon were approximately 27.8\%--51.3\% higher than the corresponding room-temperature values. For all seven tubes, the peak-to-valley ratios were higher and the single-photoelectron charge resolution improved in liquid argon. The dark count rates ranged from approximately 143 to 252~Hz at room temperature and from 166 to 199~Hz in liquid argon, with three tubes showing increases and four showing decreases. The mean number of detected afterpulses per selected primary event was approximately 21.0\%--63.6\% lower in liquid argon. The relative standard deviations across the ten daily means of gain and dark count rate did not exceed approximately 2.1\% and 3.3\%, respectively. The measurements provide a quantitative basis for considering R8520-506 tubes as photosensor candidates for liquid-argon detectors.
ER -