The large-area micro-channel plate entrance detector of the heavy-ion magnetic spectrometer PRISMA

This paper describes the entrance detector of the magnetic spectrometer PRISMA recently installed at Legnaro. The detector is based on rectangular (80 x 100 mm(2)) Micro-Channel Plates (MCP). It provides a fast time signal and its position-sensitive anode allows to extract the X and Y information. It exploits an electrostatic field for the acceleration of secondary electrons from a thin Carbon foil (similar or equal to 20 mu g/cm(2)) onto the MCP assembly. The electrons are guided by a parallel magnetic field. Good performances were obtained in the laboratory tests. The detector is presently installed at the entrance of PRISMA and gives resolutions <= 400 ps in time, and 1 mm in both X and Y-axes, with efficiency similar or equal to 100%, in typical experiments with heavy-ion beams. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.