The High Speed Photicon

We review recent progress in the development of the photicon, a photon counting two dimensional array imaging detector for visible light. Data are presented on its resolution and other imaging characteristics, quantum efficiency, counting rate linearity and dark count behavior. Some key properties of the high speed photicon are: quantum efficiency 10% at 4000 A; background counting rate-50 per second; maximum counting rate-6 x 104 per second; resolution-30μm; field of view-25 mm diameter; format-2048 x 2048 pixels.