Characterization of radiation damage caused by 23 MeV protons in Multi-Pixel Photon Counter (MPPC)

A automatic gain control system (AGC) is designed to continuously monitor and automatically control the gain of the phoswich detectors onboard the Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope (HXMT). It consists of a Am241Am241 radioactive source and a photo-detector. The Am241Am241 radioactive source is tagged within a plastic scintillator (BC440M). The scintillating photons produced by the decayed alpha particles from the radioactive source is readout by the photo-detector. The Multi-Pixel Photon Counter (MPPC) produced by Hamamatsu is used as the photo-detector for AGC. To verify the feasibility of its application in space environment, four MPPCs (S10362-33-050C) were irradiated by a beam of 23 MeV protons. The integrated proton fluence that exposed to the four MPPC samples are 1.0×108pcm−2, 2.0×108pcm−2, 4.0×108pcm−2 and 1.0×1010pcm−2 respectively. It is found that the increment leakage current of the MPPC samples caused by irradiation damage increase linearly with the integrated fluence. The pulse-height resolution of the MPPC has deteriorated hardly after irradiation. When irradiated up to 1.1×109cm−2 1 MeV equivalent neutrons, the MPPC completely lost its photon-counting capability but could still work as a photo-detector for AGC. The MPPC fails as a photo-detector for the AGC when the irradiated 1 MeV neutron equivalent fluences is up to 2.7×1010cm−2.