High amplitude events in microchannel plates

Conference · Wed Feb 01 04:00:00 EST 1989 · IEEE Trans. Nucl. Sci.; (United States)

OSTI ID:6285132

Siegmund, O H.W.; Lammert, P; Vallerga, J V; Priedhorsky, W; Smith, B W

Measurements have been made to determine the characteristics of high amplitude events in microchannel plates (MCP's). The background pulse amplitude spectrum is found to extend to >30x the MCP modal gain. The majority of the background events are initiated by /sup 40/K beta decay in the MCP glass. However, up to 4% of the events are due to cosmic ray events. Comparison of background pulse amplitude spectra for horizontal, and vertical MCP orientations suggests that the largest events are predominantly cosmic ray induced. Anticoincidence measurements confirm this result. A model describing the /sup 40/K beta decay and cosmic ray interactions in the MCP predicts spectra in accord with these observations. The authors have also determined the response of MCP's when subjected to simultaneous multiphon input. This shows that pulse amplitudes many times the modal gain are possible even though the response becomes nonlinear at high amplitudes.

• Research Organization: Space Sciences Lab., Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (US); Los Alamos National Lab., Los Alamos, NM (US)
• OSTI ID: 6285132
• Report Number(s): CONF-881103-
• Conference Information: Journal Name: IEEE Trans. Nucl. Sci.; (United States) Journal Volume: 36:1
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

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46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
654001 -- Radiation & Shielding Physics-- Radiation Physics
Shielding Calculations & Experiments
73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS
ALKALI METAL ISOTOPES
AMPLITUDES
BETA DECAY
BETA DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
BETA-MINUS DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
BETA-PLUS DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
COSMIC RADIATION
DECAY
ELECTRIC DISCHARGES
ELECTRON CAPTURE RADIOISOTOPES
ELECTRON MULTIPLIERS
ELECTRON TUBES
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
GLASS SCINTILLATORS
HIGH-FREQUENCY DISCHARGES
IONIZING RADIATIONS
ISOTOPES
LIGHT NUCLEI
MASSLESS PARTICLES
MICROCHANNEL ELECTRON MULTIPLIERS
NUCLEAR DECAY
NUCLEI
ODD-ODD NUCLEI
PHOSPHORS
PHOTONS
POTASSIUM 40
POTASSIUM ISOTOPES
RADIATIONS
RADIOISOTOPES
YEARS LIVING RADIOISOTOPES