A Microchannel Plate Based Detector for a Heavy Ion Beam Spectrometer

The design parameters and operating characteristics of the detector used in the Brutus and Fannie heavy ion beam spectrometers at the SuperHILAC facility are described. The detector utilizes a 25 mm diameter microchannel plate array to obtain gains of 102 to 108 with a linear dynamic range of 103. It has had over three years of almost maintenance-free service, detecting ion beams from carbon to xenon with energies between 1.2 and 8.5 MeV per nucleon.