I spent the first 6 weeks meeting regularly with my supervisor and becoming familiar with the equipment I would be using. I needed to learn about the electronic workings of the experimental system and the programming control I would be administering. I found this initially very time consuming but achieved it by working through the manuals for the pieces of equipment I would be using. I also ran and edited C++ code from an existing package I was given by my supervisor. I was fairly unfamiliar with C++ and so running existing code was a good way for me to begin to understand the language and also the way it could be used to control the equipment.

Outside the lab I began reading articles, LHCb manuals and information from the LHCb website that explained the workings of Multi-Anode Photomultiplier Tubes and how they were being incorporated into the LHCb experiment. As work in the lab was very much about coding and electronics at this stage it was easy to lose sight of the overall goal and so researching such topics kept me focused.

There was a problem with the QDC (charge to digital converter) module I was using, but after switching to the other one I was able to progress. I spent the next 5 weeks administering signals to the QDC module with an external pulse generator. This way I could view the pulse with an oscilloscope and manually set the characteristics I wished to use (width, period etc) before interpreting the resulting data. I edited the C++ code in order to produce text files containing information about each pulse of light, or ’event’, being administered. This information was in the form of ADC counts (digital conversions of analogue signals).

During this time, and continuing on through the Christmas break, I continued to research MaPMTs. I conducted a literature review and used this to compile the background knowledge section of my report. The LHCb manuals I was given by supervisor proved to be very informative and provided much of the information for this section. I not only focused on MaPMTs but looked into the Hybrid Photon Detector (HPD) models which are currently used in the LHCb experiment and that the MaPMTs are due to replace.

In Semester 2 I was able to use the MaPMT to obtain data. After initially being introduced to the MaPMT by my supervisor, I spent the first week familiarising myself with how it worked. My supervisor helped me set up an LED pulse which was directed to the photocathode surface of the MaPMT. I spent the next 3 weeks adjusting the equipment to cope with the new pulse source and taking data runs. Much of the code I had worked on in Semester 1 was useful here with constant improvements being made throughout the course of the semester.

I spent the next 2 weeks working learning about the graphical tool ROOT and using it to produce histograms of my results. I was continued working on my report with the Experimental Method section coming to form.

The following 2 weeks were spent altering experimental parameters such as the volt- age being administered to the MaPMT and producing further histograms. I spent the remainder of my time analysing my histograms and working on my report.