Tremendously increased lifetime of MCP-PMTs

Abstract Microchannel plate (MCP) PMTs are very attractive photon sensors for low light level applications in strong magnetic fields. However, until recently the main drawback of MCP-PMTs was their aging behavior which manifests itself in a limited lifetime due to a rapidly decreasing quantum efficiency (QE) of the photo cathode (PC) as the integrated anode charge (IAC) increases. In the latest models of PHOTONIS, Hamamatsu, and BINP novel techniques are applied to avoid these aging effects which are supposed to be mainly caused by feedback ion impinging on the PC and damaging it. For more than four years we are running a long-term aging test with new lifetime-enhanced MCP-PMT models by simultaneously illuminating various PMTs with roughly the same photon rate. This allows a fair comparison of the lifetime of all investigated MCP-PMTs and will give some insight into the best techniques to be applied for a lifetime enhancement. In this paper the results of comprehensive aging tests will be discussed. Gain, dark count rate and QE were investigated for their dependence on the IAC. The QE was measured spectrally resolved and as a function of the position across the PC to identify regions where the damage develops first. For the best performing tubes the lifetime improvement compared to former MCP-PMTs is a factor of ∼ 50 based on an IAC of meanwhile > 10 C / cm 2 . This breakthrough in the lifetime of MCP-PMTs was achieved by coating the MCP pores with an atomic layer deposition (ALD) technique.