Timing resolution of fast neutron and gamma counting with plastic microchannel plates

The performance of novel plastic Microchannel plates (MCPs) with nano-engineered conduction and emission films have been shown to match the performance of conventional glass MCPs, widely used in image intensifying and event counting devices. In this paper we investigate the timing resolution of event detection with a 5 mm-thick polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) microchannel plate with 50 μm circular pores hexagonally packed at 70 μm center-to-center spacing, which was developed for fast neutron detection. A detector consisting of the PMMA plastic MCP followed by a chevron stack of conventional glass MCPs for event multiplication was used in the timing experiments. The resolution of event counting was measured with Co-60 (1.17, 1.33 MeV γ) source. The timing accuracy was derived from the time difference of event detection with plastic MCP and a detector with liquid scintillator (BC519) coupled to a photomultiplier tube. The measured ∼4 ns FWHM timing accuracy of gamma photon counting agrees well with the results of our predictions performed with the help of a fully 3-dimensonal model of the MCP amplification process. The same model and measurements of photon detection with conventional glass MCPs indicate that substantially better (sub-ns) accuracy can be achieved with smaller pores. Although we could not directly measure the timing accuracy of fast neutron detection with our plastic MCP due to the time of flight limitation of non-monoenergetic source the fast neutron timing resolution should be on the same scale due to the similarity of amplification process once the secondary electrons are produced within a pore.