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Fabrication and characterization of monolithically integrated microchannel plates based on amorphous silicon

Microchannel plates are vacuum-based electron multipliers for particle—in particular, photon— detection, with applications ranging from image intensifiers to single-photon detectors. Their key strengths are large signal amplification, large active area, micrometric spatial resolution and picosecond...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Franco, Andrea, Geissbühler, Jonas, Wyrsch, Nicolas, Ballif, Christophe
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group 2014
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3975222/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24698955
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep04597
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author Franco, Andrea
Geissbühler, Jonas
Wyrsch, Nicolas
Ballif, Christophe
author_facet Franco, Andrea
Geissbühler, Jonas
Wyrsch, Nicolas
Ballif, Christophe
author_sort Franco, Andrea
collection PubMed
description Microchannel plates are vacuum-based electron multipliers for particle—in particular, photon— detection, with applications ranging from image intensifiers to single-photon detectors. Their key strengths are large signal amplification, large active area, micrometric spatial resolution and picosecond temporal resolution. Here, we present the first microchannel plate made of hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) instead of lead glass. The breakthrough lies in the possibility of realizing amorphous silicon-based microchannel plates (AMCPs) on any kind of substrate. This achievement is based on mastering the deposition of an ultra-thick (80–120 μm) stress-controlled a-Si:H layer from the gas phase at temperatures of about 200°C and micromachining the channels by dry etching. We fabricated AMCPs that are vertically integrated on metallic anodes of test structures, proving the feasibility of monolithic integration of, for instance, AMCPs on application-specific integrated circuits for signal processing. We show an electron multiplication factor exceeding 30 for an aspect ratio, namely channel length over aperture, of 12.5:1. This result was achieved for input photoelectron currents up to 100 pA, in the continuous illumination regime, which provides a first evidence of the a-Si:H effectiveness in replenishing the electrons dispensed in the multiplication process.
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spelling pubmed-39752222014-04-04 Fabrication and characterization of monolithically integrated microchannel plates based on amorphous silicon Franco, Andrea Geissbühler, Jonas Wyrsch, Nicolas Ballif, Christophe Sci Rep Article Microchannel plates are vacuum-based electron multipliers for particle—in particular, photon— detection, with applications ranging from image intensifiers to single-photon detectors. Their key strengths are large signal amplification, large active area, micrometric spatial resolution and picosecond temporal resolution. Here, we present the first microchannel plate made of hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) instead of lead glass. The breakthrough lies in the possibility of realizing amorphous silicon-based microchannel plates (AMCPs) on any kind of substrate. This achievement is based on mastering the deposition of an ultra-thick (80–120 μm) stress-controlled a-Si:H layer from the gas phase at temperatures of about 200°C and micromachining the channels by dry etching. We fabricated AMCPs that are vertically integrated on metallic anodes of test structures, proving the feasibility of monolithic integration of, for instance, AMCPs on application-specific integrated circuits for signal processing. We show an electron multiplication factor exceeding 30 for an aspect ratio, namely channel length over aperture, of 12.5:1. This result was achieved for input photoelectron currents up to 100 pA, in the continuous illumination regime, which provides a first evidence of the a-Si:H effectiveness in replenishing the electrons dispensed in the multiplication process. Nature Publishing Group 2014-04-04 /pmc/articles/PMC3975222/ /pubmed/24698955 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep04597 Text en Copyright © 2014, Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license. The images in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the image credit; if the image is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder in order to reproduce the image. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/
spellingShingle Article
Franco, Andrea
Geissbühler, Jonas
Wyrsch, Nicolas
Ballif, Christophe
Fabrication and characterization of monolithically integrated microchannel plates based on amorphous silicon
title Fabrication and characterization of monolithically integrated microchannel plates based on amorphous silicon
title_full Fabrication and characterization of monolithically integrated microchannel plates based on amorphous silicon
title_fullStr Fabrication and characterization of monolithically integrated microchannel plates based on amorphous silicon
title_full_unstemmed Fabrication and characterization of monolithically integrated microchannel plates based on amorphous silicon
title_short Fabrication and characterization of monolithically integrated microchannel plates based on amorphous silicon
title_sort fabrication and characterization of monolithically integrated microchannel plates based on amorphous silicon
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3975222/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24698955
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep04597
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