The novel Light Amplifier concept

Photon detectors are indispensable in many areas of fundamental physics research, particularly in the emerging field of particle astrophysics, as well as in medical imaging and nuclear nonproliferation. For a significant progress in all these areas a new, inexpensive industrial mass-production photosensor technology is needed, in many cases with a very large active area. In order to reach that goal we have introduced several innovations. This paper focuses on one of them, the hemispherical Light Amplifier. We report on the proof of principle tests of the prototype derived from an existing QUASAR phototube and a new Geiger-mode avalanche photodiode. Our experiments prove that Light Amplifier concept presents a promising solution for a next-generation low-cost photon detector offering superior performance.