Performance of Multianode Photo Multiplier Tubes at Low Gain

A study of the signal response of Multianode Photo Multiplier Tubes (MaPMT) is presented for gains spanning the range of at least $3cdot10^{4}<G<5cdot10^{6},e^{-}$. The feasibility of running the MaPMT at gains of around $ m 30000~e^{-}$ is investigated to evaluate the direct readout of MaPMT with front-end chips that have been developed for silicon detector or micro strip gas chambers. In order to characterise the shape of the signal spectra and to specify the loss of signal below a threshold cut an improved fitting algorithm is used.