Long lifetime generation IV image intensifiers with unfilmed microchannel plate

Atomic layer deposition (ALD) technology is used to nanoengineer functional films inside the pores of microchannel plate (MCP) electron multipliers, enabling a novel MCP manufacturing technology that substantially improves performance and opens novel applications. The authors have developed custom tools and recipes for the growth of conformal films, with optimized conductance and secondary electron emission inside very long channels (∼6–20 μm diameter and >600 μm length, with tens of millions of channels per single MCP) by ALD. The unique ability to tune the characteristics of these ALD films enables their optimization to applications where time-resolved single particle imaging can be performed in extreme conditions, such as high counting rates at cryogenic temperatures. Adhesion of the conductive and emissive nanofilms to the 20 μm pore MCP glass substrates and their mechanical stability over a very wide range of temperatures (10–700 K) were confirmed experimentally. Resistance of ALD MCPs was reproducible during multiple cool-down cycles with no film degradation observed. Optimizing resistance of novel MCPs for operation at cryogenic temperature should enable high count rate event detection at temperatures below 20 K.

Some fundamental properties of 18-mm-diam gated proximity-focussed microchannel-plate (MCP) image intensifiers used as fast image shutters in the 1 to 10 ns range have been identified and studied. Light pulses (≈ 5-ps-wide) from a modelocked dye laser optically sample the gated MCP. Shuttering is achieved by applying a forward-biasing electrical gate pulse to the quiescently reverse-biased photocathode-MCP interface. Variable delay (≈ 30-ps jitter) between the gate pulse and the laser pulse permit tracing the MCP's optical response. Gating speeds, turn-on and turn-off patterns, the asymmetric spatial dependence of the MCP optical response, and resolution effects as functions of gate pulse width and photocathode-MCP bias have been characterized. Shutter times of ≥ 750 ps and ≤ 5 1p/mm resolution with the MCP fully on were observed. Variations in the intensity profiles of the phosphorl.s spatial response for uniform photocathode illumination are measured with a calibrated silicon-intensified-target (SIT) focus projection, scan (FPS) television camera and a high-speed video digitizer while photomultipliers (PMTs) monitor the laser pulse and the phosphor's spatially integrated output intensities. The characterization system, gating and biasing circuits, and experimental results will be presented.

Image intensifier tubes using microchannel plate amplification stages and phosphor output stages are being increasingly used in various detection applications. In this paper, measurements of the decay times of what are attributed to be the P20 phosphors in various image intensifiers are reported. It is found that the long tail on the decay curve of the phosphor following illumination can be a limitation for certain observations. In addition, the background level of phosphor glow (which is seen by the subsequent detection system as a light signal) continues to build with continuing illumination.

Gated image intensifier tubes (IITs) with microchannel-plate (MCP) may be used for the diagnostics of very fast transient phenomena such as predischarge development in gases. The gating pulse is usually applied to the cathode of the IIT while the voltages across the MCP and the anode remain constant. Due to the transparency of the cathode, which is in the range of 10<SUP>-5</SUP>, and the low emission energy of the MCP-material, which can be below 2 eV, a small portion of radiation is able to pass the cathode during its non-gated state and release electrons directly from the MCP-material. These electrons are amplified by the MCP which may result in an aliased picture. Therefore the amount of radiation which can be applied to the IIT during its non-gated state is limited. In order to increase the gating efficiency of the IIT combined gating of the cathode and the MCP is used. This allows us to take pictures from predischarge phenomena with very low luminosity followed by the intensive radiation of the high current arc. Similar problems exist during investigations of the recovery phase of high current switches. In addition gating of the MCP reduces all kinds of noise caused by the MCP during the relatively long integration time of the video-camera usually connected to the IIT. A single frame high speed camera with gated photocathode, gated MCP, and variable exposure times between 700 ps and 5 ns has been developed. The transparency could be decreased from 1E - 5 of less than 1E - 13.

Low Noise Proximity Focused Image Intensifiers

This paper describes a numerical development of image converters and intensifiers which incorporate an inverting electron optical system (EOS) and a microchannel plate (MCP) as an amplifier. The numerical design of the system includes calculation of the electrostatic field in the device, trajectories of electrons emitted from a photocathode, and determination of the modulation-transfer-function (MTF) which gives the objective estimation for the image quality. Results of the numerical experiments are shown, and the EOS with optimized characteristics is developed. It provides the nearly flat image surface, determines the position of the surface of the best focus, minimizes the image distortion and reduces a noise factor of the MCP.

High-gain microchannel plates (MCPs) which utilize curvature of the channel to inhibit ion feedback (C-plate MCRs) have demonstrated excellent performance characteristics. However, C-plate MCPs are at present costly to fabricate, and the shearing process used to curve the channels produces a low device yield. Described here is a totally new type of high-gain MCP structure in which each channel has an axially symmetric curvature. Initial tests of proof-of-concept units of these MCPs with 75-micron-diameter channels (macroplates) suggest that their performance characteristics have the potential to be equal to those of a C-plate MCP while the fabrication process is no more complex than that of a conventional straight-channel MCP.

A photon-counting detector for determination of the ion temperature in magnetically confined plasmas has been developed.1 The detector is based around an image intensifier tube which is fiber optically coupled to a self-scanning linear photodiode array. The image intensifier incorporates three high strip current (∼280 μA) microchannel plates in a ‘‘Z’’ configuration. Frame times of 10 μs are possible through the use of pixel selection, resulting in a time resolution on the order of 5 ms. The detector system will be mounted on a 1-M Ebert–Fastie spectrometer and used to study the Alcator C plasma. Laboratory evaluation of the detector and associated electronics has been completed. The results of this evaluation, and progress toward integration of the detector and spectrometer systems, will be presented. This work, and additional information, will be published in greater detail in the near future.

Advances in photocathodes (GaN, Diamond, GaAs), microchannel plates (Silicon MCP's), and readouts (Cross strip) are poised to make a significant impact on the capabilities of future space instruments. Alkali halide cathode efficiencies have been improved and GaN photocathodes have achieved >30% DQE in the UV with a bandpass limit of ~400nm. In addition diamond photocathodes have been made with 40% DQE and bandpass up to 200nm, and GaAs photocathodes with ~50% DQE in the visible have been made. This offers the potential for efficient photon counting from 10 - 900nm. Silicon MCP's of 25mm format with ~7μm pores, have been made, achieving gain of nearly 104 for a single Si MCP. The quantum detection efficiency for Si MCP's is the same as glass MCP's, but the background is as low as ~ 0.02 events sec-1 cm-2, the best for any MCP. Flat fields are free of any periodic modulation, and the gain uniformity is good. Silicon MCP's have low stopping power for X, gamma and cosmic rays, are stable at high temperatures (>800°C), and chemically compatible with many photocathodes. The cross delay line and cross strip anodes are based on multi-layer metal and ceramic cross strip patterns. Event positions are encoded by the difference of signal arrival times at the anode contacts (delay line) or by direct sensing of the charge on each strip (cross strip) and determination of the charge cloud centroid for each event. The spatial resolution (<5μm) achieved is sufficient to resolve 7μm microchannel plate pores while using low MCP gain (≈2 x 106). Image linearity is good enough to see distortions in the microchannel plate pore alignment, and the low MCP gain will enhance the overall lifetime of MCP detector systems.

The microchannel plate (MCP) is a semiconducting glass plate containing an array of open channels that can provide photo-electron amplification for imaging applications. Conventional MCP channel geometries are designed to inhibit ion-feedback that occurs in straight channel plates at high applied potentials. Ion-feedback must be reduced as much as possible since its presence degrades the performance of the plate by adding noise to the plate's output. The performance characteristics of a new geometrical design for a high-gain MCP, that employs channels that spiral downward in a helical fashion to inhibit ion-feedback, have been evaluated in the laboratory. A Multi-Anode Microchannel Array (MAMA) detector was used to test the new MCP. The "helical-channel" MCPs tested to date have channel diameters of 50 microns and have demonstrated stable operation at gains above 106 electrons/pulse. The goal of the program is to develop "helical-channel" MCPs with channel diameters as small as 12 microns within two years. Detailed performance data including the dynamic range, pulse-height distribution, and gain characteristics of this new MCP will be presented.

A two-dimensional (2D) soft X-ray (SXR) imaging system for obtaining tangential views of plasma-produced SXR has been installed on the QUEST tokamak. The system comprises a chevron micro-channel plate (MCP) and a phosphor screen, which together serve as an SXR detector and image intensifier, along with a high-speed video camera for capturing and storing image data. The system can be used in imaging mode to obtain high spatial- and time-resolution images or in photon counting mode at an ultra-high framing rate of 100 kHz to obtain SXR energy spectra. Here, we propose a method of in situ energy calibration based on the transmission characteristics of a 25-µm Be filter. The proposed method was used to obtain SXR spectra in the energy range 1.5 - 3.5 keV with a core electron temperature in agreement with electron temperatures measured by the Thomson scattering method. Furthermore, oscillations based on the modification of plasma parameters and rapid increases in impurity radiation were detected in imaging mode. This dual-mode-compatible method for obtaining 2D SXR diagnostics is useful for the study of high temperature plasmas.

From a point of a signal-to-background ratio, phosphors are a key component of micro channel plate (MCP) based x-ray framing cameras. In an MCP based framing camera, x-ray signal is converted to electrons, gated, amplified, and converted back to optical signal on the phosphor. To operate x-ray framing cameras in a harsh neutron induced radiation background of the National Ignition Facility, cathodeluminescence efficiency of the phosphor is very important. To avoid MCP damage due to high voltage breakdown, we have been operating phosphors below 3kV (acceleration field < 6 kV/mm). The signal-to-background ratio the camera can be significantly improved by increasing the phosphor potential to 10kV. We measured conversion efficiencies of standard phosphors at electron energies of 0.5 ~10 keV and assessed achievable performance of them with using a numerical model.

We report the results obtained with a novel readout system for scintillating fibres and X-ray imaging based on the combination of a silicon pixel detector and one stage of light amplification using a 2nd generation image intensifier. The pixel detector is a hybrid assembly of a high resistivity silicon detector bump-bonded to a CMOS binary readout chip and can be read out at a speed of 15 MHz. Each pixel element measures 75 /spl mu/m/spl times/500 /spl mu/m. Scintillating fibre ribbons and scintillating crystals are coupled to the detector array using one stage of light amplification provided by a micro-channel plate (MCP) image intensifier with fiberoptic faceplates. We have used the system to image electron tracks in a bundle of scintillating fibre ribbons. Further we have shown how the system can be used for imaging 122 keV X-rays such as those used in nuclear medicine. The system provides the possibility of single photon counting, high spatial resolution and Compton rejection.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

Evaluation of Photon-event-counting Intensifiers

Spatially resolved images of particle distributions are measured in steady-state plasmas in a GEC (gaseous electronics conference) plasma reactor. Images are obtained by monochromatic imaging of scattered laser light using a microchannel plate (MCP) image intensifier and a high-speed video camera. The observed distributions of particulates generated by adding small quantities of CHF/sub 3/ to an argon plasma are extremely complex and diverse. The patterns observed are temporally varying, and rarely as simple as domes and rings observed in other reactors. The forces acting on the particles are sufficiently complex that reproducing specific spatial patterns by controlling processing parameters is often impossible.