Micro-channel-plate-based photo-detectors are unique in being capable of covering areas of many square-meters while providing sub-millimeter space resolution, time resolutions of less than 10 picoseconds for charged particles, time resolutions of 30-50 psec for single photons. Incorporating a capacitively-coupled anode allows for the use of external pickup electrodes optimized for occupancy, rate, and time/space resolution. The signal pickup antenna can be implemented as a printed circuit card with a pattern chosen to match the specific application needs. The electrode elements are typically either a 2-dimensional array of pads for high-occupancy/high-rate applications, or a 1-dimensional array of strips for low-occupancy/low-rate, and a lower channel count. Here we present pad patterns that enhance charge-sharing between pads to significantly lower the required channel count/area while maintaining spatial resolutions of 100 to 200 microns for charged particles and 400 microns to 1 mm for single photons. Patterns that use multiple signal layers in the capacitively-coupled printed circuit signal pickup board can lower the channel count even further, moving the scaling behavior in the number of pads versus total area from quadratic to linear.
We have developed a 4-channel multi-anode MCP-PMT, SL10, which exhibits a performance of sigma_TTS ~ 30 ps for single photons with G ~ 10^6 and QE=20% under a magnetic field of B <= 1.5 T. The cross-talk among anodes has been extensively studied. We have taken two measures to suppress it: one is to configure the SL10 to an effectively independent 4 small pieces of MCP-PMT's by segmenting an electrode of the second MCP-layer; the other is to use a constant fractional discriminator. Remarkable improvement has been achieved.
This paper reports on the time resolution of two photodetectors operated as single photon counters at high rate: a Hamamatsu R13742-103-M64 "conventional" (based on metal dynodes) multi-anode photomultiplier tube (MaPMT) and a Hamamatsu R10754-07-M16 microchannel plate photomultiplier tube (MCP-PMT). The MCP-PMT shows a time resolution (transit time spread, or jitter) of ~70 ps FWHM (~30 ps RMS) at low photon rates, but saturates above ~100 kHz/mm^2. The MaPMT can handle photon counting rates up to the highest tested, 10 MHz/mm^2. Its time resolution is ~250 ps FWHM (~110 ps RMS) when only the…
We have measured and compared the characteristics of ALD-coated Planacon MCP-PMTs (XP85112/A1-Q-L) with their non-ALD counterparts (XP85012/A1-Q). While the later show excellent performance, the ALD-coated sensors have surprisingly low current saturation levels (~two orders of magnitude lower than expected) and extremely high gain recovery time (more than 7 orders of magnitude higher than expected). We suspect that these problems might be caused by the unexpected side-effects of the ALD process. To make a definite conclusion, more samples need to be tested, preferably from different production…
We have designed and tested a robust 20 $\times$ 20 cm$^2$ thin metal film internal anode capacitively coupled to an external array of signal pads or micro-strips for use in fast microchannel plate photodetectors. The internal anode, in this case a 10nm-thick NiCr film deposited on a 96% pure Al$_2$O$_3$ 3mm-thick ceramic plate and connected to HV ground, provides the return path for the electron cascade charge. The multi-channel pickup array consists of a printed-circuit card or glass plate with metal signal pickups on one side and the signal ground plane on the other. The pickup can be put i…
Large-Area Picosecond Photo-Detectors (LAPPDs) show great potential for expanding the performance envelope of Micro-Channel Plates (MCPs) to areas of up to 20 x 20 cm and larger. Such scaling introduces new challenges, including how to meet the electronics readout burden of ever larger area MCPs. One solution is to replace the traditional grid anode used for readout with a microwave stripline anode, thus allowing the channel count to scale with MCP width rather than area. However, stripline anodes introduce new issues not commonly dealt with in grid-anodes, especially as their length increases…
The Argonne MCP-based photo detector is an offshoot of the Large Area Pico-second Photo Detector (LAPPD) project, wherein 6 cm x 6 cm sized detectors are made at Argonne National Laboratory. We have successfully built and tested our first detectors for pico-second timing and few mm spatial resolution. We discuss our efforts to customize these detectors to operate in a cryogenic environment. Initial plans aim to operate in liquid argon. We are also exploring ways to mitigate wave length shifting requirements and also developing bare-MCP photodetectors to operate in a gaseous cryogenic environme…
Micro-channel plate (MCP)-based photodetectors are capable of picosecond level time resolution and sub-mm level position resolution, which makes them a perfect candidate for the next generation large area photodetectors. The large-area picosecond photodetector (LAPPD) collaboration is developing new techniques for making large-area photodetectors based on new MCP fabrication and functionalization methods. A small single tube processing system (SmSTPS) was constructed at Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) for developing scalable, cost-effective, glass-body, 6 cm x 6 cm, picosecond photodetectors…
Digital signal processing techniques were employed to investigate the joint use of charge division and risetime analyses for the resistive anode (RA) coupled to a microchannel plate detector (MCP). In contrast to the typical approach of using the relative charge at each corner of the RA, this joint approach results in a significantly improved position resolution. A conventional charge division analysis utilizing analog signal processing provides a position measured resolution of 170 $μ$m (FWHM). By using the correlation between risetime and position we were able to obtain a measured resolution…
Development and characterization of hybrid MCP-PMT with embedded Timepix4 ASIC used as pixelated anode
INFN, Division of Ferrara（意大利国家核物理研究所费拉拉分部）；Dept. of Physics and Earth Science, University of Ferrara（费拉拉大学地球科学与物理学系）；EP Department, CERN（欧洲核子研究中心实验物理部）
High energy physics community is continuously working on development of new photodetectors able to improve their experiments detection performances and so to increase the possibility of new discoveries and new important scientific results. The first attempt to enhance the performances of classical PMTs by substituting the dynode chain is represented by MCP-PMTs. In addition to that, one of the strategies adopted to reach this goal is to realize hybrid photodetectors, that are new photomultipliers containing a semiconductor device within a vacuum tube. In the last years, basically three competi…
In order to develop a long-lifetime MCP-PMT under high rates of circumstance, we investigated the degradation of the quantum efficiency (QE) of PMT's with a multialkali photocathode. We found that not only positive ions, but also neutral residual gases would damage the photocathode resulting in an enhancement of the work function; their countermeasures were established in newly manufactured square-shaped MCP-PMT's with 4 or 4x4 multi-anodes. The performances of the PMT's were measured: QE was stable up to an integrated amount of anode output charge of 2-3 C/cm^2, while keeping other basic perf…
We study the potential of the MCP-PMT read-out to detect single photo-electron using transmission lines. Such a solution limits the number of read-out channels, has a uniform time resolution across the PMT surface and provides quasi-continuous measurement of the spatial coordinates. The proposed solution is designed to be used in the BOLD-PET project aiming to develop an innovative detection module for the positron emission tomography using the liquid detection media, the tri-methyl bismuth. In this study we use the commercial MCP-PMT Planacon from Photonis, with 32x32 anode structure. The PCB…
An event-counting thermal neutron imaging detector based on 3 mol % natGd2O3 doped micro channel plate (MCP) has been developed and tested. Thermal neutron imaging experiment was carried out with a low flux neutron beam. Detection efficiency of 33 % was achieved with only one doped MCP. The spatial resolution of 72 μm RMS is currently limited by the readout anode. A detector with larger area and improved readout method is now being developed.
We have designed and prototyped the process steps for the batch production of large-area micro-channel-plate photomultipliers (MCP-PMT) using the "air-transfer" assembly process developed with single $LAPPD^{\text{TM}}$ modules. Results are presented addressing the challenges of designing a robust package that can transmit large numbers of electrical signals for pad or strip readout from inside the vacuum tube and hermetically sealing the large-perimeter window-body interface. We have also synthesized a photocathode in a large-area low-aspect-ratio volume, and shown that the micro-channel plat…
Microchannel plates (MCP) are the basis for many spatially-resolved single-particle detectors such as ICCD or I-sCMOS cameras employing image intensifiers (II), MCPs with delay-line anodes for the detection of cold gas particles or Cherenkov radiation detectors. However, the spatial characterization provided by an MCP is severely limited by cross-talk between its microchannels, rendering MCP and II ill-suited for autocorrelation measurements. Here we present a cross-talk subtraction method experimentally exemplified for an I-sCMOS based measurement of pseudo-thermal light second-order intensit…
The CLARO-CMOS is an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) designed for fast photon counting with pixellated photodetectors such as multi-anode photomultiplier tubes (Ma-PMT), micro-channel plates (MCP), and silicon photomultipliers (SiPM). The first prototype has four channels, each with a charge sensitive amplifier with settable gain and a discriminator with settable threshold, providing fast hit information for each channel independently. The design was realized in a long-established, stable and inexpensive 0.35 um CMOS technology, and provides outstanding performance in terms of s…
We have developed a position response calibration method for a micro-channel plate (MCP) detector with a delay-line anode position readout scheme. Using an {\em in situ} calibration mask, an accuracy of 8~$μ$m and a resolution of 85~$μ$m (FWHM) have been achieved for MeV-scale $α$ particles and ions with energies of $\sim$10~keV. At this level of accuracy, the difference between the MCP position responses to high-energy $α$ particles and low-energy ions is significant. The improved performance of the MCP detector can find applications in many fields of AMO and nuclear physics. In our case, it …
We report on the response of microchannel plates (MCPs) to single relativistic particles and to electromagnetic showers. Particle detection by means of secondary emission of electrons at the MCP surface has long been proposed and is used extensively in ion time-of-flight mass spectrometers. What has not been investigated in depth is their use to detect the ionizing component of showers. The time resolution of MCPs exceeds anything that has been previously used in calorimeters and, if exploited effectively, could aid in the event reconstruction at high luminosity colliders. Several prototypes o…
Aging experiments of a novel type of large area MCP-PMT made by JUNO collaboration were conducted.In these aging experiments, the multi-photoelectron spectrum and single photoelectron spectrum were measured daily,as well as the MCP resistance of the second PMT before and after the experiment. Two PMTs were aged successivelyfor cross check. The first PMT was aged for 52 days, while the other one was aged for 84 days. In order to study the mechanism of the aging process, the high voltage on the second PMT was increased to accelerate its aging process when the cumulative output of charge from its…
A first experimental test of tracking relativistic charged particles by `drifting' Cherenkov photons in a water-based optical time-projection chamber (OTPC) has been performed at the Fermilab Test Beam Facility. The prototype OTPC detector consists of a 77~cm long, 28~cm diameter, 40~kg cylindrical water mass instrumented with a combination of commercial $5.1\times5.1$~cm$^2$ micro-channel plate photo-multipliers (MCP-PMT) and $6.7\times6.7$~cm$^2$ mirrors. Five MCP-PMTs are installed in two columns along the OTPC cylinder in a small-angle stereo configuration. A mirror is mounted opposite eac…
TORCH is a large-area, high-precision time-of-flight (ToF) detector designed to provide charged-particle identification in the 2-20 GeV$/c$ momentum range. Prompt Cherenkov photons emitted by charged hadrons as they traverse a 10mm quartz radiator are propagated to the periphery of the detector, where they are focused onto an array of micro-channel plate photomultiplier tubes (MCP-PMTs). The position and arrival times of the photons are used to infer the particles' time of entry in the radiator, to identify hadrons based on their ToF. The MCP-PMTs were developed with an industrial partner to s…
A beam imaging detector was developed by coupling a multi-strip anode with delay line readout to an E$\times$B microchannel plate (MCP) detector. This detector is capable of measuring the incident position of the beam particles in one-dimension. To assess the spatial resolution, the detector was illuminated by an $α$-source with an intervening mask that consists of a series of precisely-machined slits. The measured spatial resolution was 520$μ$m FWHM, which was improved to 413$μ$m FWHM by performing an FFT of the signals, rejecting spurious signals on the delay line, and requiring a minimum si…
We propose PET scanners using low atomic number media that undergo a persistent local change of state along the paths of the Compton recoil electrons. Measurement of the individual scattering locations and angles, deposited energies, and recoil electron directions allows using the kinematical constraints of the 2-body Compton scattering process to perform a statistical time-ordering of the scatterings, with a high probability of precisely identifying where the gamma first interacted in the detector. In these cases the Line-of-Response is measured with high resolution, determined by the underly…
