Spiraltron Matrices as Windowless Photon Detectors for Soft X-Ray and Extreme UV

The principal problems associated with detecting low energy photons and charged particles are summarized, and the potential advantages to be gained by using channel electron multipliers to detect such radiation are discussed. Operating characteristics of the recently developed Spiraltron electron multiplier are also described. Spiraltrons incorporate all the operating characteristics of curved channel electron multipliers, but possess a straight geometric configuration that allows them to be stacked into large matrices. Such matrices have a peaked gain distribution (FWHM ≈ 90 percent), high mean gain (≈ 107), and low dark noise (3 counts/second/cm2) making them ideal for detecting low energy radiation from spacially dispersed sources.