Model Independent Approach to the Single Photoelectron Calibration of Photomultiplier Tubes
Model Independent Approach to the Single Photoelectron Calibration of Photomultiplier Tubes
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DOI：
10.1016/j.nima.2017.02.086
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发表时间：
2016-02
影响因子：
1.4
通讯作者：
R. Saldanha;L. Grandi;Y. Guardincerri;T. Wester
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
R. Saldanha;L. Grandi;Y. Guardincerri;T. Wester
光电倍增管的精确校准在各种各样的应用中是至关重要的，因为它需要知道被检测光子的绝对数量或精确确定信号的分辨率。传统的校准方法依赖于将光电倍增管响应与单光电子分布的解析近似拟合到低强度光源上。我们表明，由于无法准确地模拟整个分布，特别是在低电荷值时，这种方法经常导致有偏差的估计。我们提出了一种简单的统计方法来提取相关的单个光电子校准参数（前两个中心矩），而不需要对潜在的单个光电子分布进行任何假设。我们通过对Hamamatsu R11410光电倍增管的校准说明了该方法的使用，并通过蒙特卡罗模拟研究了该方法的准确性和精密度。与传统方法相比，该方法显著减少了偏置，并且在宽范围的光强度下工作，使其适用于同时校准可能不可能均匀照明的大型光电倍增管阵列。
The accurate calibration of photomultiplier tubes is critical in a wide variety of applications for which it is necessary to know the absolute number of detected photons or precisely determine the resolution of the signal. Conventional calibration methods rely on fitting the photomultiplier response to a low intensity light source with analytical approximations to the single photoelectron distribution. We show that this approach often leads to biased estimates due to an inability to model the full distribution accurately, especially at low charge values. We present a simple statistical method to extract the relevant single photoelectron calibration parameters (first two central moments) without making any assumptions about the underlying single photoelectron distribution. We illustrate the use of this method through the calibration of a Hamamatsu R11410 photomultiplier tube and study the accuracy and precision of the method using Monte Carlo simulations. The method is found to have significantly reduced bias compared to conventional methods and works under a wide range of light intensities, making it suitable for the simultaneous calibration of large arrays of photomultiplier tubes where uniform illumination may not be possible.