A survey of space radiation damage to DAMPE-PSD

Abstract As a new astronomical telescope for cosmic rays, DArk Matter Particles Explorer (DAMPE) have been operated in-orbit for more than four years since it was launched at the end of 2015. It could measure electron and gamma-ray ranging from 5 GeV to 10 TeV to explore the brand new astrophysical phenomenon. As a very high energy telescope, the working lifetime is significant to accumulate high statistics for astroparticle signals. The aging of detectors due to the Total Absorbed Dose (TAD) is one of the main factors affecting the working lifetime of DAMPE. Due to the Plastic Scintillator Detector (PSD) should face a worse radiation environment, in this paper, the space TAD damage to the scintillator strips and the PhotoMultiplier Tubes (PMTs) of the PSD are investigated in detail. The results show that the radiation damage to the PSD strips can be ignored during DAMPE satellite operation time, and the minimum working lifetime of the PMTs in the PSD is 8.32 years as the gain of the PMTs are degraded by 20% in orbit.