Microchannel plate imaging photon counters for ultraviolet through NIR detection with high time resolution

Abstract

Cross strip and cross delay line readout microchannel plate detectors in 18 mm, 25 mm and 40 mm active area formats including open face (UV/particle) and sealed tube (optical) configurations have been constructed. These have been tested with a field programmable gate array based electronics for single event encoding. Using small pore MCPs (6 μm) operated in a pair, we achieve gains of >1 × 106 which is sufficient to provide spatial resolution of ~17 μm FHWM with the 18 mm and 40 mm cross strip readouts. New cross strip electronics can process high output event rates (> 4 MHz) with high spatial resolution, and self triggered event timing accuracy of ~1.5 ns for sealed tube XS optical sensors. A peak quantum efficiency of between 13% and 19% at 500 nm has been achieved with SuperGenII photocathodes with response from 400 nm to 900 nm for both cross strip and cross delay line sealed tubes. Local area counting rates of up to 40 kHz (100μm spot) have been attained with XS sealed tubes, along with image linearity and stability to better than 50 μm. 25mm cross delay line tubes achieve ~50 μm resolution and > 2 MHz output event rates.