An electro-optical multichannel ion detector for magnetic sector mass spectrometer

A new 16-channel ion counter has been developed; the detector comprises a microchannel plate (MCP) assembly, phosphor screen, magnifying lens, and linear 16-anode photomultiplier (PM). The multi-anode PM allowed the dynamic counting range to be expanded to 105 pulse/channel. The dark noise does not exceed 0.1 pulse/s per channel. Cross interference is negligible due to digitally processing each ion signal. The detector makes it possible to concurrently measure actinide isotopes and background in the intervals between spectral peaks. The paper considers the detector design and performance.