Background events in microchannel plates

Conference · Mon Feb 01 04:00:00 EST 1988 · IEEE Trans. Nucl. Sci.; (United States)

OSTI ID:6997036

Siegmund, O H.W.; Vallerga, J; Wargelin, B

Measurements have been made to assess the characteristics and origins of background events in microchannel plates (MCP's). The authors consistently achieved an overall background rate of --0.4 events cm/sup 2/ sec/sup -1/ for MCP's that have been baked and scrubbed. The temperature and gain of the MCP's are found to have no significant effect on the background rate. Detection of 1.46 MeV ..gamma.. rays from the MCP glass confirms the presence of /sup 40/K, with a concentration of 0.0007% in the MCP glass. Furthermore, the authors show that ..beta.. decay from /sup 40/K is sufficient to cause the background rate and spectrum observed. Anticoincidence measurements indicate that the background rate caused by cosmic ray interactions is small (<0.016 events cm/sup -2/ sec/sup -1/).

• Research Organization: Space Sciences Lab., Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (US)
• OSTI ID: 6997036
• Report Number(s): CONF-871006-
• Conference Information: Journal Name: IEEE Trans. Nucl. Sci.; (United States) Journal Volume: 35:1
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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640100 -- Astrophysics &amp; Cosmology
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
ALKALI METAL ISOTOPES
AMPLIFICATION
BACKSCATTERING
BETA DECAY
BETA DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
BETA DETECTION
BETA-MINUS DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
BETA-PLUS DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
CHARGED PARTICLE DETECTION
COSMIC RAY DETECTION
COSMIC RAY SPECTROMETERS
DECAY
DETECTION
ELECTRON CAPTURE RADIOISOTOPES
ELECTRON MULTIPLIERS
ELECTRON TUBES
GAIN
GAMMA DETECTION
ISOTOPES
LIGHT NUCLEI
MEASURING INSTRUMENTS
MICROCHANNEL ELECTRON MULTIPLIERS
NUCLEI
ODD-ODD NUCLEI
POTASSIUM 40
POTASSIUM ISOTOPES
RADIATION DETECTION
RADIOISOTOPES
SCATTERING
SPECTROMETERS
YEARS LIVING RADIOISOTOPES