The Design and Realization of Linear Calibration System of a Large Dynamic Range Readout Unit for a BGO Calorimeter

The DArk Matter Particle Explorer (DAMPE) is proposed by the Purple Mountain Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences. This project expects to find the evidence of the existence of dark matter particles in the universe via the detection of the high-energy electrons and gamma-ray particles produced possibly by the annihilation of dark matter particles. The major component of the satellite payload is a BGO (Bismuth Germanate Oxide) calorimeter, which is used to detect the particles in the energy range from 5 GeV to 10 TeV. According to a physical simulation, the dynamic range of each BGO detection unit is about 1.5×105. In order to test the readout linearity of the BGO detection unit, we have implemented a simple linear calibration system covering such a large dynamic range. The experimental result shows that the readout nonlinearity of the BGO detection unit in the entire dynamic range is less than 2.7%.