Photoelectron-counting electronics for a microchannel-plate-intensified integrated diode array

Abstract

A multichannel photoelectron-counting system employing a Reticon 1024-element linear silicon photodiode array with fiber optic window has been developed. The fiber optic window may be used to couple a microchannel-plate intensifier which provides a front-end gain of photons to the photodiode array. With sufficient front-end gain, the cascade of photons which results from a single photodetection by the microchannel plate will produce a number of charge carriers in the photodiode array comparable to its saturation level. Thus, low-resolution pulse-counting circuits are required to interrogate the array and approach the ideal of single-photon-counting shot-limited performance. Details of the intrinsic functions and properties of photodiode arrays and microchannel plates have been reported elsewhere. The intent of this paper is to elucidate simple electronics designed specifically for operating photodiode arrays in the intensified single-photon recording mode. Although a microchannel plate was not available during the term of this work, performance of the system was illustrated by some simple optical experiments.