SiPM response to long and intense light pulses

Recently Silicon Photomultipliers (SiPMs) have become well recognized as the detector of choice for various applications which demand good photon number resolution and time resolution of short weak light pulses in the nanosecond time scale. In the case of longer and more intensive light pulses, SiPM performance gradually degrades due to dark noise, afterpulsing, and non-instant cell recovering. Nevertheless, SiPM benefits are expected to overbalance their drawbacks in applications such as X-ray cargo inspection using Scintillation-Cherenkov detectors and accelerator beam loss monitoring with Cherenkov fibres, where light pulses of a microsecond time scale have to be detected with good amplitude and timing resolution in a wide dynamic range of 10(5)-10(6). This report is focused on transient characteristics of a SiPM response on a long rectangular light pulse with special attention to moderate and high light intensities above the linear dynamic range. An analytical model of the transient response and an initial consideration of experimental results in comparison with the model are presented. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.