title: A fast microchannel plate-scintillator detector for velocity map imaging and imaging mass spectrometry.
abstract: The time resolution achievable using standard position-sensitive ion detectors, consisting of a chevron pair of microchannel plates coupled to a phosphor screen, is primarily limited by the emission lifetime of the phosphor, around 70 ns for the most commonly used P47 phosphor. We demonstrate that poly-para-phenylene laser dyes may be employed extremely effectively as scintillators, exhibiting higher brightness and much shorter decay lifetimes than P47. We provide an extensive characterisation of the properties of such scintillators, with a particular emphasis on applications in velocity-map imaging and microscope-mode imaging mass spectrometry. The most promising of the new scintillators exhibits an electron-to-photon conversion efficiency double that of P47, with an emission lifetime an order of magnitude shorter. The new scintillator screens are vacuum stable and show no signs of signal degradation even over longer periods of operation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Chemistry Research Laboratory, University of Oxford, 12 Mansfield Rd, Oxford OX1 3TA, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Winter
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Chemistry Research Laboratory, University of Oxford, 12 Mansfield Rd, Oxford OX1 3TA, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: S J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: King
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Physical and Theoretical Chemistry Laboratory, University of Oxford, South Parks Rd, Oxford OX1 3QZ, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Brouard
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Chemistry Research Laboratory, University of Oxford, 12 Mansfield Rd, Oxford OX1 3TA, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Vallance