Passive, 100-ps, x-ray-driven pulser for gating microchannel-plate detectors

Alan R. Fry; Paul T. Springer

doi:10.1117/12.198658

4 January 1995 Passive, 100-ps, x-ray-driven pulser for gating microchannel-plate detectors

Alan R. Fry, Paul T. Springer

Proceedings Volume 2343, Optically Activated Switching IV; (1995) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.198658
Event: Photonics for Industrial Applications, 1994, Boston, MA, United States

Abstract

A means for electrically gating a microchannel-plate (MCP) detector using a fast rise-time, x-ray-driven Auston switch is presented. The Ga:As Auston switches which are used in the pulser were tested to stand off 7 kV DC bias, and can therefore be used without ramped biasing electronics. Calculations for the x-ray sensitivity of the Auston switches in the pulser are presented. The pulsers were tested with visible light and x rays and were shown to exhibit 90 ps rise-time between zero and 1 kV when triggered by a 1.2 mJ/cm² flux of subkilovolt x rays as measured by silicon p-i-n diodes. The pulser was designed to trigger MCP detectors which were used to spectrally characterize an x-ray heated target. A major attribute of this pulser is that it can be preset to gate a detector with less than a few picoseconds timing jitter with no foreknowledge of the time of arrival of the triggering x-ray flux.

Citation Download Citation

Alan R. Fry and Paul T. Springer "Passive, 100-ps, x-ray-driven pulser for gating microchannel-plate detectors", Proc. SPIE 2343, Optically Activated Switching IV, (4 January 1995); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.198658

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