Development of sub-nanosecond, high gain structures for time-of-flight ring imaging in large area detectors

Microchannel plate photomultiplier tubes (MCPs) are compact, imaging detectors, capable of micron-level spatial imaging and timing measurements with resolutions below 10 ps. Conventional fabrication methods are too expensive for making MCPs in the quantities and sizes necessary for typical HEP applications, such as time-of-flight ring-imaging Cherenkov detectors (TOF-RICH) or water Cherenkov-based neutrino experiments. The Large Area Picosecond Photodetector Collaboration (LAPPD) is developing new, commercializable methods to fabricate 20 cm(2) thin planar MCPs at costs comparable to those of traditional photo-multiplier tubes. Transmission-line readout with waveform sampling on both ends of each line allows the efficient coverage of large areas while maintaining excellent time and space resolution. Rather than fabricating channel plates from active, high secondary electron emission materials, we produce plates from passive substrates, and coat them using atomic layer deposition (ALD), a well established industrial batch process. In addition to possible reductions in cost and conditioning time, this allows greater control to optimize the composition of active materials for performance. We present details of the MCP fabrication method, preliminary results from testing and characterization facilities, and possible HEP applications. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.