On-sky SiPM Performance Measurements for Millisecond to Sub-Microsecond Optical Source Variability Studies. (arXiv:2002.00147v1 [astro-ph.IM])
<a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Lau_A/0/1/0/all/0/1">Albert Wai Kit Lau</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Shafiee_M/0/1/0/all/0/1">Mehdi Shafiee</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Smoot_G/0/1/0/all/0/1">George F. Smoot</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Grossan_B/0/1/0/all/0/1">Bruce Grossan</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Li_S/0/1/0/all/0/1">Siyang Li</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Maksut_Z/0/1/0/all/0/1">Zhanat Maksut</a>
We present initial measurement of silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) for
Ultra-Fast Astronomy (UFA) which will be able to enhance detection of
variability of the optical sky in the millisecond and shorter time scale. In
this experiment two different SiPM models S14160-3050HS and S14520-3050VS were
mounted on the 0.7 meter Nazarbayev University Transient Telescope at the
Assy-Turgen Astrophysical Observatory (NUTTelA-TAO) on two consecutive nights.
By coupling the 3mm$times$3mm SiPM onto NUTTelA-TAO, we obtain
2.2716’$times$2.2716′ viewing solid-angle on one SiPM channel. As a first test
we measured sky background, bright stars and artificial millisecond alternative
source. we compare detected SiPM counts with Gaia satellite G band flux which
showed they are in a good linear agreement. The obtained photon signal is also
analysed on millisecond and microsecond time windows. According to our
experiments, dark count of SiPM S14520-3050VS and S14160-3050HS are measured to
be $sim$130 and $sim$85 kilo count per second (kcps) while sky background is
$sim$191 and 203 kcps respectively. Also intrinsic crosstalk of both detectors
are measured to be 10.34$%$ and 10.52$%$ respectively while light sensitivity
of them has a lower limit of 14.7 and 15.2 Gaia G-band magnitude under 200ms of
observation per target with $5sigma$ criterion. For transient events, we
propagated the 10$mu s$ sensitivity to be 20 photon detected or 6.1 Gaia
G-band magnitude. For even shorter timescale like Sub-Microsecond, the
sensitivity is limited by crosstalk to 12 photons detected. magnitude. For even
shorter timescale like Sub-Microsecond, the sensitivity is limited by crosstalk
to 12 photons detected.
We present initial measurement of silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) for
Ultra-Fast Astronomy (UFA) which will be able to enhance detection of
variability of the optical sky in the millisecond and shorter time scale. In
this experiment two different SiPM models S14160-3050HS and S14520-3050VS were
mounted on the 0.7 meter Nazarbayev University Transient Telescope at the
Assy-Turgen Astrophysical Observatory (NUTTelA-TAO) on two consecutive nights.
By coupling the 3mm$times$3mm SiPM onto NUTTelA-TAO, we obtain
2.2716’$times$2.2716′ viewing solid-angle on one SiPM channel. As a first test
we measured sky background, bright stars and artificial millisecond alternative
source. we compare detected SiPM counts with Gaia satellite G band flux which
showed they are in a good linear agreement. The obtained photon signal is also
analysed on millisecond and microsecond time windows. According to our
experiments, dark count of SiPM S14520-3050VS and S14160-3050HS are measured to
be $sim$130 and $sim$85 kilo count per second (kcps) while sky background is
$sim$191 and 203 kcps respectively. Also intrinsic crosstalk of both detectors
are measured to be 10.34$%$ and 10.52$%$ respectively while light sensitivity
of them has a lower limit of 14.7 and 15.2 Gaia G-band magnitude under 200ms of
observation per target with $5sigma$ criterion. For transient events, we
propagated the 10$mu s$ sensitivity to be 20 photon detected or 6.1 Gaia
G-band magnitude. For even shorter timescale like Sub-Microsecond, the
sensitivity is limited by crosstalk to 12 photons detected. magnitude. For even
shorter timescale like Sub-Microsecond, the sensitivity is limited by crosstalk
to 12 photons detected.
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