Electronic measurement of microchannel plate pulse height distributions.

Microchannel plates are a central component of the x-ray framing cameras used as analog imagers in many plasma experiment diagnostic systems. The microchannel plate serves as an amplifying element, increasing the electronic signal from incident radiation by factors of 10(3)-10(5), with a broad pulse-height distribution. Seeking to optimize the photon-to-electron conversion efficiency and noise distribution of x-ray cameras, we will characterize the pulse-height distribution of the electron output from a single microchannel plate. Replacing the framing camera's phosphor-coated fiber optic screen with a charge-collection plate and coupling to a low-noise multichannel analyzer, we quantified the distribution in the total charge generated per photon event. The electronically measured pulse height distribution is used to estimate the signal-to-noise ratio of radiographic images from framing cameras.