Status of Silicon Photomultiplier Developments as optical Sensors for MAGIC/EUSO–like Detectors

MAGIC [2] is currently the world largest air Cherenkov telescope. MAGIC has been constructed to study sources of very high energy γ–rays (VHE–γ) in the energy range from a few tens of GeV up to a few tens of TeV. In the experiment, γ–rays are detected indirectly by collecting Cherenkov photons which are emitted in a VHE–γ induced electromagnetic cascade in the atmosphere. For a more comprehensive summary of the physics programm of MAGIC the interested reader is directed to [1]. With an EUSO [4] like experiment, it is planned to study cosmic rays of the highest energies (≥ 10 eV) by detecting from extended air showers fluorescent light with a space born detector, for example as proposed by the EUSO collaboration. The photon yield at the entrance pupil of the detector is in the order of a few hundred to thousand photons distributed over a time window of about 100μs.