Performance of microchannel plate based detectors for <25 keV x rays: Monte Carlo simulations and comparisons with experimental results
Citation
Kruschwitz, C. A., Wu, M., & Moy, K. (2021). Performance of microchannel plate based detectors for <25 keV x rays: Monte Carlo simulations and comparisons with experimental results. Review of Scientific Instruments, 92(4), 043101.
Keywords
- Microchannel plate (MCP) detectors
- X-ray detection
- Monte Carlo simulations
- Experimental validation
- Sensitivity
- Gain
- Spatial resolution
- Dynamic range
- Time resolution
- High-Energy Density Plasma (HEDP) research
Brief
This article uses Monte Carlo simulations and comparisons with experimental results to study how microchannel plate (MCP) detectors perform when detecting x-rays with energies below 25 keV.
Summary
This article investigates the performance of microchannel plate (MCP) detectors for x-rays with energies below 25 keV. The authors created a Monte Carlo simulation to study how x-ray energy and incident angle affect the sensitivity and spatial resolution of MCP detectors. The simulation was then compared to experimental results.
Here are the key findings:
- The MCP gain sensitivity decreases as x-ray energy increases because high-energy x-rays can penetrate deeper into the MCP, causing electron cascades to initiate deeper within the device.
- The relationship between MCP sensitivity and the angle of incidence changes from a cotangent dependence to angular independence and then to a secant dependence as x-ray energy increases. This transition is due to the increasing penetration depth of higher energy x-rays.
- The spatial resolution of an MCP imaging detector degrades with increasing x-ray energy, primarily when the x-ray incident angle is not normal to the MCP surface.
- The gate profile width, which reflects the time resolution of the detector, increases as x-ray energy increases due to the deeper penetration of higher-energy x-rays.
- The dynamic range of the MCP, or its usable range of signal intensities, can be adjusted by changing the applied voltage.
The simulations showed good agreement with experimental data, demonstrating their usefulness for designing and understanding MCP-based x-ray diagnostics.