Characterization of 900 four-anode photomultiplier tubes for use in 2013 hadronic forward calorimeter upgrade

The first 900 four-anode Photomultiplier Tubes (PMTs) have been evaluated for use in the 2013 Hadronic Forward (HF) calorimeter upgrade. HF is a part of the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS), which is one of the two large general-purpose particle detectors of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland. HF requires 1728 PMTs. These small tubes are the sensitive light detectors that provide the output signals of HF. Before installing PMTs in HF, their quality control demands need to be satisfied. These tests, done at the University of Iowa, are designed in three categories to test seventeen different parameters for each PMT. The three most basic and most important groups of parameters are: dark current, gain (anode and cathode), and timing. There are secondary tests which are performed on a smaller percentage of the PMTs such as surface uniformity, double pulse and single photo-electron resolution. The PMTs that meet the specifications of HF will be sent to CERN where they are expected to be in use for at least a decade.