Characterization of large area photomultipliers and its application to dark matter search with noble liquid detectors Bueno Villar, Antonio Lozano Bahílo, Julio Melgarejo-Fernández, Antonio Jesús Muñoz, F. J. Navarro, J. L. Navas Concha, Sergio Ruiz, A. G. Photon detectors UV IR photons Cryogenic detectors Photomultipliers HPDs There is growing interest in the use of noble liquid detectors to study particle properties and search for new phenomena. In particular, they are extremely suitable for performing direct searches for dark matter. In this kind of experiments, the light produced after an interaction within the sensitive volume is usually read-out by photomultipliers. The need to go to masses in the tonne scale to explore deeper regions of the parameter space, calls for the use of large area photomultipliers. In this paper we address the need to perform laboratory calibration measurements of these large photomultipliers, in particular to characterize its behaviour at cryogenic temperatures where no reference from the manufacturer is available. We present comparative tests of phototubes from two companies. The tests are performed in conditions similar to those of operation in a real experiment. Measurements of the most relevant phototube parameters (quantum efficiency, gain, linearity, etc.) both at room and liquid Argon temperatures are reported. The results show that the studied phototubes comply with the stringent requirements posed by current dark matter searches performed with noble-liquid detectors. 2013-11-07T13:14:33Z 2013-11-07T13:14:33Z 2008 info:eu-repo/semantics/article Bueno, A.; et al. Characterization of large area photomultipliers and its application to dark matter search with noble liquid detectors. Journal of Instrumentation, 3: P01006 (2008). [http://hdl.handle.net/10481/29080] 1748-0221 doi: 10.1088/1748-0221/3/01/P01006 arXiv:0711.3592v2 http://hdl.handle.net/10481/29080 eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 License Institute of Physics