MEAN SECONDARY-ELECTRON YIELD OF AVALANCHE ELECTRONS IN THE CHANNELS OF A MICROCHANNEL PLATE DETECTOR

By modeling the statistical evolution of an avalanche created by 20 ke V protons impacting the input surface of a z-stack microchannel plate (MCP) detector, the mean secondary electron yield ye of avalanche elec trons propagating through a MCP channel is measured to equal 1.37 for 760 V per MCP in the z stack. This value agrees with other studies tha t used MCP gain measurements to infer gamma(C). The technique describe d here to measure gamma(C) is independent of gain saturation effects a nd simplifying assumptions used in the segmented dynode model, both of which can introduce errors when inferring ye through gain measurement s. (C) 1996 American Institute of Physics.