Secondary-emission amplification at microwave frequencies

Two types of photomultipliers exhibiting flat base-band response to ∼4 Gc/s are described. One photomultiplier employs crossed electric and magnetic fields, the other is purely electrostatic. At present both devices consist of eight Cu-Be secondary emission stages and an internally situated, opaque-backed S-1 photocathode. Current gain exceeds 10⁵, and the transit time dispersion is less than s. Frequency response measurements have used heterodyning between the modes of the Zeeman-split Doppler profiles of a 6328 Å He-Ne laser, and also shot noise in the current from a steadily illuminated photocathode as sources of microwave modulated currents. Transient response measurements have been made using sub-nanosecond light pulses from phase-locked He-Ne and argon ion lasers, the results being consistent with the measured frequency response. A calculation of the frequency response to be expected from identical stages of secondary emission when only the secondary electron emission velocities contribute to electron transit time differences, as is true of the geometries used in the experiments, gives results in agreement with experiment, assuming a value of 3 eV for the most probable secondary electron emission energy from BeO. This value is consistent with direct observations by others.