Geant4 simulation of the ABALONE photosensor

The ABALONE is a new type of photosensor produced by PhotonLab, Inc. with cost effective mass production, robustness and high performance. This modern technology provides sensitivity to visible and UV light, exceptional radio-purity and excellent detection performance in terms of intrinsic gain, afterpulsing rate, timing resolution and single-photon sensitivity. The ABALONE is based on the acceleration of photoelectrons in vacuum. These are generated in a traditional photocathode and guided towards a window of scintillating material. The resulting scintillation light can be read from the outside via a silicon photomultiplier (SiPM). The device has been proposed as a possible candidate for the DARWIN experiment. We performed the complete simulation of the detector, mapped the electrostatic field within the vacuum of the sensor and studied its possible optimization.