Investigation and compensation of the nonlinear response in photomultiplier tubes for quantitative single-shot measurements.
Author
Summary, in English
A concept for time-sensitive optical detectors is described that shows how to confirm whether the detection device is operating in the linear response regime. By evaluating the recorded time decay of a thermographic phosphor, even weak saturation effects far from obvious situations can be identified and further related to either optical or electrical saturation. The concept has been validated by running a PMT detector close to saturation and exposing it to the optical signal decay of two different thermographic phosphors, La(2)O(2)S:Eu and CdWO(4). It was confirmed that short but intense light exposures at the beginning of an individual time decay influence the detector response for the rest of the decaying signal including temporal areas, where the anode current has dropped well below the manufacturer specified current limit. Such situations are common when applying, e.g., phosphor thermometry where it is necessary to retrieve the full decay curve from a single-shot event, i.e., standard techniques based on single-photon counting are omitted. Finally, means of compensation are introduced in order to facilitate the retrieval of useful information from the measurement data when operation in the non-linear response regime is inevitable.
Department/s
Publishing year
2012
Language
English
Publication/Series
Review of Scientific Instruments
Volume
83
Issue
3
Full text
Document type
Journal article
Publisher
American Institute of Physics (AIP)
Topic
- Atom and Molecular Physics and Optics
Status
Published
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISSN: 1089-7623