An accurate measurement of PMT TTS based on the photoelectron spectrum

The water Cherenkov detector array (WCDA) for the Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory (LHAASO) will employ more than 3600 hemisphere 8-inch photomultiplier tubes (PMTs). Good time performance of the PMT, especially the transit time spread (TTS), is required for the WCDA. In order to meet the demand of the WCDA experiment, an accurate measurement of PMT TTS based on the photoelectron spectrum is studied. The method is appropriate for multi-photoelectrons and makes it possible to measure the TTS of different photoelectrons simultaneously. The TTS of different photoelectrons for a Hamamatsu R5912 PMT is tested with a specially designed divider circuit. The relationship between TTS and number of photoelectrons is also presented in this paper.     

Design of the photomultiplier tube bases for high dynamic range readout in WCDA

The photomultiplier tube (PMT) used in the water Cherenkov detector array (WCDA) of the Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory (LHAASO) requires a good single photoelectron (SPE) spectrum and a charge dynamic range from 1 to 4000 photoelectrons. In this paper, the bases design and improvement of the photomultiplier tube R5912 are presented. The results show that at the gain of 2.6 × 10~6 , the anode output has a good single photoelectron spectrum, and its charge non-linearity is within 5% when the number of photoelectrons (nPE) is 3500. The charge non-linearity of the 8th dynode output is within 2% when the number of nPE is 4000, which satisfies the dynamic range requirement.