English

Absolute scintillator light yield correction for SiPIN readout via Transfer Matrix Method and Geant4 optical simulation

High Energy Physics - Experiment 2026-03-03 v1 Optics

Abstract

Precise measurement of the absolute light yield (LY) of scintillators has long been limited by systematic effects inherent in realistic readout geometries. Large-angle incidence, multiple reflections inside the optical housing, and refractive-index mismatch at the coupling interface all introduce biases that cannot be removed by a simple conversion based on the detector's nominal quantum efficiency. To address this problem, we present a correction method that combines the Transfer Matrix Method (TMM) with Geant4 optical Monte Carlo simulation. A wave-optics model of the SiPIN surface thin-film stack is used to extract the angle- and wavelength-dependent single-hit detection probability pdet(λ,θ)p_{\mathrm{det}}(\lambda,\theta), which is then dynamically coupled into the macroscopic photon transport simulation, achieving a full-chain integration of the microscopic interface optical response with macroscopic geometric light collection. We demonstrate the method using a GAGG:Ce crystal as the test sample. Two types of optical housings -- a high-absorption Absorber and a high-reflection Reflector -- are each combined with air and optical-grease coupling, forming four independent configurations whose overall photon-to-signal conversion efficiencies αSiPIN\alpha_{\mathrm{SiPIN}} span more than a factor of three. Despite the very different optical boundaries, the intrinsic light yields derived from the four configurations show excellent mutual consistency (coefficient of variation =1.8%= 1.8\%). The measured intrinsic light yield of GAGG:Ce is LYint=(5.63±0.10spread±0.16syst)×104 ph/MeVLY_{\mathrm{int}} = (5.63 \pm 0.10_{\mathrm{spread}} \pm 0.16_{\mathrm{syst}}) \times 10^{4}~\mathrm{ph/MeV}. The correction framework effectively decouples the systematic influence of complex geometry and interface optics from photon detection, providing a general-purpose scheme for high-precision, traceable scintillator characterization.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2603.01867,
  title  = {Absolute scintillator light yield correction for SiPIN readout via Transfer Matrix Method and Geant4 optical simulation},
  author = {Ge Ma and Zhiyang Yuan and Chencheng Feng and Zirui Yang and Zhenwei Yang and Ming Zeng},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2603.01867},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

26 pages, 13 figures

R2 v1 2026-07-01T10:59:13.827Z