Monte Carlo simulations of microchannel plate detectors. I. Steady-state voltage bias results

• Published in: Review of scientific instruments Vol. 79; no. 7; pp. 073104 - 073104-7
• Main Authors: Wu, Ming, Kruschwitz, Craig A., Morgan, Dane V., Morgan, Jiaming
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Institute of Physics 01.07.2008
• Subjects: COMPUTER CODES; COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION; ELECTRIC POTENTIAL; HIGH ENERGY PHYSICS; INERTIAL CONFINEMENT; INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY; MICROCHANNEL ELECTRON MULTIPLIERS; MONTE CARLO METHOD; POSITION SENSITIVE DETECTORS; SPATIAL RESOLUTION; STEADY-STATE CONDITIONS; TIME RESOLUTION; TWO-DIMENSIONAL CALCULATIONS; X RADIATION; X-RAY DETECTION; X-RAY SPECTROSCOPY
• ISSN: 0034-6748; 1089-7623
• DOI: 10.1063/1.2949119

X-ray detectors based on straight-channel microchannel plates (MCPs) are a powerful diagnostic tool for two-dimensional, time-resolved imaging and time-resolved x-ray spectroscopy in the fields of laser-driven inertial confinement fusion and fast Z-pinch experiments. Understanding the behavior of microchannel plates as used in such detectors is critical to understanding the data obtained. The subject of this paper is a Monte Carlo computer code we have developed to simulate the electron cascade in a MCP under a static applied voltage. Also included in the simulation is elastic reflection of low-energy electrons from the channel wall, which is important at lower voltages. When model results were compared to measured MCP sensitivities, good agreement was found. Spatial resolution simulations of MCP-based detectors were also presented and found to agree with experimental measurements.