Calibration and performance of the photon sensor response of FACT -- The First G-APD Cherenkov telescope

Abstract

The First G-APD Cherenkov Telescope (FACT) is the first in-operation test of the performance of silicon photo detectors in Cherenkov Astronomy. For more than two years it is operated on La Palma, Canary Islands (Spain), for the purpose of long-term monitoring of astrophysical sources. For this, the performance of the photo detectors is crucial and therefore has been studied in great detail. Special care has been taken for their temperature and voltage dependence implementing a correction method to keep their properties stable. Several measurements have been carried out to monitor the performance. The measurements and their results are shown, demonstrating the stability of the gain below the percent level. The resulting stability of the whole system is discussed, nicely demonstrating that silicon photo detectors are perfectly suited for the usage in Cherenkov telescopes, especially for long-term monitoring purpose.

References in corpus (6)

• Design Concepts for the Cherenkov Telescope Array
• Characterisation Studies of Silicon Photomultipliers
• Design and Operation of FACT -- The First G-APD Cherenkov Telescope
• Analytical models of probability distribution and excess noise factor of Solid State Photomultiplier signals with crosstalk
• A method to correct IACT data for atmospheric absorption due to the Saharan Air Layer
• Design constraints on Cherenkov telescopes with Davies-Cotton reflectors

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