Paper 13103-59
Paper 13103-59
Imager of MPPC-based optical photon counter from Yamagata
On demand | Presented live 19 June 2024 
Abstract
We have developed the 100 ns high-time resolution optical camera based on the Multi-Pixel Photon Counter (MPPC) called ”Imager of MPPC-based Optical photoN counter from Yamagata (IMONY)”. IMONY has three important parts: the customized sensor, the front-end board, and the Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) with the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS). The sensor is made with the MPPC composed of a monolithic Geiger-mode Avalanche PhotoDiodes (GAPD) array. The photon detection efficiency is more than 60% at 450nm. The feature that GAPD can detect a single photon has cons in terms of dynamic range, while has pros in terms of nothing readout noise. A detected photon is converted to a photo-electron, and it is multiplied ∼106 times larger via avalanche amplification. The front-end board has a comparator and the amplified signal is recognized as a single photon when the pulse height exceeds a threshold. The output signal is sent to the FPGA and given a timestamp of 100ns accuracy. In January 2023 and October 2023, we mounted IMONY for two Japanese optical telescopes. One is the 1.5m Kanata telescope, Hiroshima, Japan. The other is the 3.8m Seimei telescope, Okayama, Japan. We observed the Crab pulsar and detected pulses for all rotations (one pulse per single rotation) more than 5σ for the main pulse phase.
Presenter
Kazuaki Hashiyama
The Univ. of Tokyo (Japan), Yamagata Univ. (Japan)
Kazuaki Hashiyama is a ph.D. student at The University of Tokyo/Yamagata University. He is interested in developing photon detectors, especially made with avalanche photodiodes, and standing up for astronomical challenges with hand-made devices. In his master's course, he passionately evaluated the fundamental performance of a silicon photo-multiplier for CTA Large-sized telescopes and he got a master's degree from the University of Tokyo in March 2022. His current work is to unveil the emission mechanism of giant radio pulses from the Crab pulsar with his high sensitivity and high time resolution optical imager developed at Yamagata University. He becomes well-informed not only on hardware and software system development but also on multi-wavelength data analysis. In October 2023, he won an award from the Physical Society of Japan.