Performance of the BGO Detector Element of the DAMPE Calorimeter

A satellite-borne, high energy cosmic ray detector, named the DArk Matter Particle Explorer (DAMPE), was developed in China. The major scientific objectives of the DAMPE mission are observing primary cosmic rays and gamma rays in an energy range from 5 GeV to 10 TeV, to find evidence of the existence of dark matter particle. An electromagnetic calorimeter (ECAL), which contains 308 Bismuth Germanate (BGO) crystal bars, has been built for the DAMPE mission. The performance of 60-cm long BGO crystal bars has been studied with cosmic rays. Electron and ion beam test results of the BGO ECAL are also presented in this paper.