VL53L0X photon detector

julianE

Senior Member
I'll be ordering the VL53LOX TOF module, from little I've read about the sensor it's capable of detecting a single photon. I'm curious if anyone knows how to access just the detector portion of the module without using the laser portion. I'm thinking with a Scintillator screen the module could detect high energy cosmic rays. I have seen camera sensors used to detect cosmic rays but would think VL53LOX would be far better.
 

bag57pipe

New Member
I'm sorry if I'm wasting youre time but what you are doing piqued my curiosity I had to look up "ultra-high-energy cosmic rays" if that's what you are looking for, I was going to have a go at a SID detector (not in the same league) but gave up because of background noise. At a risk of making ass of myself (I was an electronic engineer but not a very good one) I had a quick scan of the datasheet and it looks like there is a lot of hardware (mostly DSP I suspect) between the avalanche diode and the output, they seem a little coy about giving precise details of the internals,. If you can access the raw data from what I can tell it is averaged therfore the one photon sensitivity is possibly due to the DSP processing giving a calulated one photon sensitivity not an actual single photon detection however I could be wrong. If using scintillator screen would a photo multiplier be any use, I suspect the big problem with any technique you use is the signal to noise ratio especially if any conversion is required. STM have a support forum https://community.st.com/s/ but it may or may not be much help. Have you had a look on the techlib site they have some science circuits that although they do not solve youre current problem it may be a source of inspiration. (http://techlib.com/science/index.html)
 

julianE

Senior Member
I'm sorry if I'm wasting youre time but what you are doing piqued my curiosity I had to look up "ultra-high-energy cosmic rays" if that's what you are looking for, I was going to have a go at a SID detector (not in the same league) but gave up because of background noise.
Thanks for your reply. Yes, it's ultra high energy cosmic rays ( UHECR ) I had in mind. Back before covid i was lucky enough to hear a lecture by a physicist that is working on triangulating the source of the UHECR and also to hear her talk about initial deployment. There are numerous articles on the research, here is one, cosmic rays
There are also kits for making muon detectors which the UHECR produce when entering the atmosphere.
here is one from MIT, detector.

I think you are very much right about the VLS detector and it's reliance on DSP to extract information from the noise. I just thought it would make for a very inexpensive detector.

BTW, if i remember right, the cameras mounted on the balloons take a million images a second and use the atmosphere as a giant scintillator.

all the best.
 

bag57pipe

New Member
Angela Olinto’s balloon experiment was interesting, it's a bit mind bending that a particle with a life expectancy of microseconds can hang around so much longer because it travels so fast time slows. I really should pay more attention, the VL53LOX datasheet is quite clear there is a Single Photon Avalanche Diode in there. I wonder if covering the lazer on the VL53LOX would generate any useable data, it maybe of no use as a scientific instrument but an interesting novelty as are gold leaf electroscopes and Crookes radiometers. If you have the VL53LOX and like mucking about it may be worth a go, otherwise you could make a very stylish digital rule:giggle:
 
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julianE

Senior Member
I still haven't got the VL53LOX to play with. Glad you liked Angela Olinto, I had a chance to hear her speak twice, excellent presentations and a lot of good questions. I miss the in person lectures before covid.

Appreciate your interest in the topic, I'm thinking the laser triggers the data collection and without the laser the output stays idle, just a guess.
 
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