Characterisation of silicon photomultipliers in a dilution refrigerator down to 9.4 mK towards a cryogenic cosmic-ray muon veto system

DMC Collaboration; A. Kemp; S. Autti; E. Bloomfield; A. Casey; N. Darvishi; D. Doling; N. Eng; P. Franchini; R. P. Haley; P. J. Heikkinen; A. Jennings; S. Koulosousas; E. Leason; L. V. Levitin; J. March-Russell; A. Mayer; J. Monroe; D. Münstermann; M. T. Noble; J. R. Prance; X. Rojas; T. Salmon; J. Saunders; J. Smirnov; R. Smith; M. D. Thompson; A. Thomson; A. Ting; V. Tsepelin; S. M. West; L. Whitehead; D. E. Zmeev

doi:10.1088/1748-0221/21/05/p05008

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arXiv · 2512.16769

Characterisation of silicon photomultipliers in a dilution refrigerator down to 9.4 mK towards a cryogenic cosmic-ray muon veto system

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Abstract

We report the characterisation of a FBK NUV-HD-cryo silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) sensor operated in a 9.4 $\pm$ 0.2 mK environment inside a dilution refrigerator, towards the development of a cryogenic cosmic ray muon veto system to be operated internal to a dilution refrigerator required for low background experiments such as the QUEST-DMC dark matter search experiment. We characterise the single photon response and the gain (the charge produced per detected photon), the dark count noise rate, and correlated noise contributions as a function of operating voltage. This paper also reports first proof-of-concept measurements of using a SiPM coupled to scintillator internal to a dilution refrigerator, towards detecting high-energy events consistent with candidate cosmic-ray muon signals.

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DMC Collaboration, A. Kemp, S. Autti, E. Bloomfield, A. Casey, N. Darvishi, D. Doling, N. Eng, P. Franchini, R. P. Haley, P. J. Heikkinen, A. Jennings, S. Koulosousas, E. Leason, L. V. Levitin, J. March-Russell, A. Mayer, J. Monroe, D. Münstermann, M. T. Noble, J. R. Prance, X. Rojas, T. Salmon, J. Saunders, J. Smirnov, R. Smith, M. D. Thompson, A. Thomson, A. Ting, V. Tsepelin, S. M. West, L. Whitehead, D. E. Zmeev. 2025-12-18. Characterisation of silicon photomultipliers in a dilution refrigerator down to 9.4 mK towards a cryogenic cosmic-ray muon veto system. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-0221/21/05/p05008

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