Performance of MPPC at low temperature

The performance of a MultiPixel Photon Counter (MPPC) from room to liquid nitrogen temperatures were studied. The gain, the noise rate and bias voltage of the MPPC as a function of temperature were obtained. The experimental results show that the MPPC can work at low temperatures. At nearly liquid nitrogen temperatures, the gain of the MPPC drops obviously to 35% and the bias voltage drops about 9 V compared with that at room temperature. The thermal noise rate from 10(6) Hz/mm at room temperature drops abruptly to 0 Hz/mm at -100 degrees C. The optimized operation point can be acquired by the experiment.