Pilot Production of Large Area Microchannel Plates and Picosecond Photodetectors

Abstract

Pilot production performance is reported for large area atomic layer deposition (ALD) coated microchannel plates (ALD-GCA-MCPs) and for Large Area Picosecond Photodetectors (LAPPD9TR(trademark)) which incorporate them. Hollow-core glass capillary array (GCA) substrates are coated with ALD resistive and emissive layers to form the ALD-GCA-MCPs, an approach that facilitates independent selection of glass substrates that are mechanically stronger and that have lower levels of radioactive alkali elements compared to conventional MCP lead glass, reducing background noise[1,2,3,4]. ALD-GCA-MCPs have competitive gain (~104 each or ~107 for a chevron pair ), enhanced lifetime and gain stability (7 C cm-2 of charge extraction), reduced background levels (0.028 events cm-2 sec-1) and low gamma-ray detection efficiency. They can be fabricated in large area (20cm X 20 cm) planar and curved formats suitable for use in high radiation environment applications, including astronomy, space instrumentation, and remote night time sensing. The LAPPD(trademark) photodetector incorporates these ALD-GCA-MCPs in an all-glass hermetic package with top and bottom plates and sidewalls made of borosilicate float glass. Signals are generated by a bi-alkali Na2KSb photocathode, amplified with a stacked chevron pair of ALD-GCA-MCPs. Signals are collected on RF strip-line anodes integrated into to the bottom plates which exit the detector via pin-free hermetic seals under the side walls [5]. Tests show that LAPPDTMs have electron gains greater than 107, sub-millimeter spatial resolution for large (multiphoton) pulses and several mm for single photons, time resolution less than 50 picoseconds for single photons, predicted resolution less than 5 picoseconds for large pulses, high stability versus charge extraction[6], and good uniformity for applications including astrophysics, neutron detection, high energy physics Cherenkov light detection, and quantum-optical photon-correlation experiments.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Sep 15, 2016
Accession Number
AD1121822

Entities

People

  • Alexey Lyashenko
  • Anil U. Mane
  • Bernhard W. Adams
  • Camden Ertley
  • Christopher A. Craven
  • Jeffrey W. Elam
  • Justin L. Bond
  • Mark A. Popecki
  • Melvin Aviles
  • Michael E. Stochaj
  • Michael J. Minot
  • Michael R. Foley
  • Oswald H. Siegmund
  • Till Cremer
  • William A. Worstell

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Advanced Electronics
  • Biomedical

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Assembly
  • Detection
  • Detectors
  • Fabrication
  • Films
  • Glass
  • Manufacturing
  • Materials Laboratories
  • Materials Processing
  • Measurement
  • Microchannel Plates
  • Optical Materials
  • Particle Physics
  • Photodetectors
  • Physics
  • Production
  • Quantum Efficiency
  • Silica Glass
  • Space Surveillance
  • Surveillance

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Nanofabrication and Microfabrication.
  • Pulsed Power and Plasma Physics.
  • Quantum Dot Semiconductor Device Photonics and Graphene Optoelectronic Materials and THz Physics.

Technology Areas

  • Microelectronics
  • Microelectronics - Graphene
  • Quantum Computing
  • Space
  • Space - Hall-Effect Thruster