Multi-channel picosecond photon timing with microchannel plate detectors

作者：Lapington J S^*; Conneely T

来源：Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment , 2011, 648: S186-S189.

DOI：10.1016/j.nima.2010.11.175

• Detector
• Microchannel plate
• Multi-channel
• Picosecond
• Photon-counting
• Timing

Microchannel plate-based detectors have the capability to photon-count at time resolutions which outperform solid-state devices such as the APD or SiPM, and have a geometry that lends itself to pixelated readouts. We describe a multi-channel, photon-counting microchannel plate detector optimised for photon timing in the picosecond regime. The detector was originally developed for application to time-resolved spectroscopy in the life sciences, however its performance characteristics make it suitable for applications where high time resolution and multi-channel photon-counting are required including Cherenkov light detection in nuclear physics, particle physics, and astroparticle astronomy.
We describe the prototype detector, a sealed tube device comprising an optical photocathode proximity focussed to a small pore microchannel plate stack. Event charge is collected on a multi-channel readout comprising an 8 x 8 pixel array, manufactured on a multilayer ceramic, which provides vacuum integrity for the detector enclosure and a multi-way electrical feedthrough for the readout array. Each pixel addresses one channel of a NINO ASIC, a multi-channel preamplifier-discriminator device. The discriminator outputs are timed to 25 ps by the HPTDC time-to-digital converter ASIC, which uses a time-over-threshold technique for amplitude walk correction. We present performance measurements using a pulsed laser of the 64 channel prototype system comprising a 25 mm detector, NINO front-end, and a CAEN V1290A VME module utilising HPTDC. We discuss the next phase in the project-design and manufacture of a 40 mm detector with a 16 x 16 pixel(2) readout coupled to custom NINO/HPTDC electronics constructed as a series of 64 channel modules, expandable to even larger channel densities.

• 出版日期2011-8-21