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Updated: May 10, 2026

Automated Delivery of Microfabricated Targets for Intense Laser Irradiation Experiments
Published on: January 28, 2021
Invited article: a test-facility for large-area microchannel plate detector assemblies using a pulsed sub-picosecond
Bernhard Adams1, Matthieu Chollet, Andrey Elagin
1Argonne National Laboratory, 9700 S. Cass Ave., Lemont, Illinois 60439, USA.
Abstract:
The Large Area Picosecond Photodetector Collaboration is developing large-area fast photodetectors with time resolution ~10 ps and space resolution ~1 mm based on atomic layer deposition-coated glass Micro-Channel Plates (MCPs). We have assembled a facility at Argonne National Laboratory for characterizing the performance of a wide variety of microchannel plate configurations and anode structures in configurations approaching complete detector systems. The facility consists of a pulsed Ti:Sapphire laser with a pulse duration ≈100 fs, an optical system allowing the laser to be scanned in two dimensions, and a computer-controlled data-acquisition system capable of reading out 60 channels of anode signals with a sampling rate of over 10 GS/s. The laser can scan on the surface of a sealed large-area photodetector, or can be introduced into a large vacuum chamber for tests on bare 8 in.-square MCP plates or into a smaller chamber for tests on 33-mm circular substrates. We present the experimental setup, detector calibration, data acquisition, analysis tools, and typical results demonstrating the performance of the test facility.

