Light Detector Commissioning for a Xenon Test Bed at UCLA

Photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) are highly sensitive light detectors that capture photons and convert them into an amplified electric current. Before using PMTs, it is necessary to commission them to quantify the gain of each PMT and ensure that they operate within manufacturer tolerances. Determining the gain involves carefully detecting a single photon in a testing environment completely free of excess light. Gain measurement results are analyzed to verify each PMT's performance. In Prof. Kamaha's Lab at the University of California, Los Angeles, we are constructing a liquid xenon time projection chamber (LXe-TPC) that contains an array of several PMTs. LXe-TPCs are used to understand some features of the micro-physics of various particle interactions with the xenon atoms in the detector. These interactions are crucial for calibrating the detector's responses for dark matter searches and other rare event searches. I will present on the PMT gain measurements I made and also discuss my future work which includes integrating the calibrated PMTs into the LXe TPC setup for further testing.