Study of SiPM custom arrays for scintillation light detection in a Liquid Argon Time Projection Chamber

Abstract

Liquid Argon Time Projection Chamber (LAr-TPC) technique has been established as one of the most promising for the next generation of experiments dedicated to neutrino and rare-event physics. LAr-TPCs have the fundamental feature to be able to both collect the charge and the scintillation light produced after the passage of a ionizing particle inside the Argon volume. Scintillation light is traditionally detected by large surface Photo-Multiplier Tubes (PMTs) working at cryogenic temperature. Silicon Photo-Multipliers (SiPMs) are semiconductor-based devices with performances comparable to the PMT ones, but with very small active areas. For this reason we built a prototype array composed by SiPMs connected in different electrical configurations. We present results on preliminary tests made with four SiPMs, connected both in parallel and in series configurations, deployed into a 50 liters LAr-TPC exposed to cosmic rays at CERN.