ASSEMBLY AND CALIBRATION OF PHOTO-MULTIPLIER TUBES FOR USE IN LARGE SCALE PARTICLE EXPERIMENTATION AT JEFFERSON LABORATORY

Photomultiplier tubes have been used for decades as a trusted source of particle detection in the fields of nuclear and particle physics. Their ability to transform light into an electrical current allowing the measurement of energy and timing information makes them invaluable in determining the products of many nuclear interactions. Much like most sensitive instrumentation though, all photomultiplier tubes must be carefully constructed and calibrated in order to ensure that the data collection process is efficient as well as accurate. My research involved the assembly and calibration of photomultiplier tubes for the use in large scale experimentation at Jefferson Lab in Newport News, VA and to ensure the optimization and calibration of Hamamatsu photomultiplier tubes. In order to ensure the quality of the photomultiplier tubes methods of dark current testing, base pin potentiometry, and low energy high frequency led emission testing served as the basis for quality control and management of each photomultiplier tube. These results were stored in a database as individual specifications of each photomultiplier tubes to be used as a starting point for large scale detector calibration.

Additional Abstract Information

Student(s): Bryan Isherwood

Department: Physics and Astronomy

Faculty Advisor: Dr. Kevin Giovanetti

Type: Oral

Year: 2013