Eur. Phys. J. C (2022) 82: 344
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-022-10289-x

Special Article - Tools for Experiment and Theory

First operation of undoped CsI directly coupled with SiPMs at 77 K

¹ Department of Physics, University of South Dakota, 414 East Clark Street, 57069, Vermillion, SD, USA
² University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, USA

^b jing.liu@usd.edu

Received: 3 January 2022
Accepted: 4 April 2022
Published online: 20 April 2022

Abstract

The light yield of a small undoped cesium iodide (CsI) crystal directly coupled with two silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) at about 77 Kelvin was measured to be $43.0\pm 1.1$ photoelectrons (PE) per keV electron-equivalent (keV${}_{\text{ee}}$) using X and $\gamma$-ray peaks from an ${}^{241}$Am radioactive source from 18 to 60 keV. The high light yield together with some other technical advantages illustrate the great potential of this novel combination for neutrino and low-mass dark matter detection, particularly at accelerator-based neutrino sources, where random background can be highly suppressed by requiring coincident triggers between SiPMs and beam pulse timing signals. Some potential drawbacks of using cryogenic SiPMs instead of photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) were identified, such as worse energy resolution and optical cross-talks between SiPMs. Their influence to rare-event detection was discussed and possible solutions were provided.