Development and testing of a fiber/multianode photomultiplier system for use on FiberGLAST
Abstract
A scintillating fiber detector (FiberGLAST) is currently being studied for the NASA Gamma-Ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) mission. This detector utilizes modules composed of a thin converter sheet followed by an x,y plane of scintillating fibers to examine the shower of particles created by high energy gamma-rays interacting in the converter material. The detector is composed of a tracker with 90 such modular planes and a calorimeter with 36 planes. The two major components of this detector are the scintillating fibers and their associated photodetectors. Here we present current status of development and test results of both of these. The Hamamatsu R5900-00-M64 multianode (64 anodes) photomultiplier tube (MAPMT) is the baseline readout device. A characterization of this device has been performed including noise, cross-talk, gain variation, vibration, and thermal/vacuum tests. A prototype fiber/MAPMT system has been tested at the Center for Advanced Microstructures and Devices (CAMD) at Louisiana State University with a photon beam and preliminary results are presented.