Large Photocathode Photodetectors Using Photon Amplification and Phase-Space Compression

TL;DR

This paper introduces Optical Compressor Amplifier Tubes (OCA Tubes), a technique that amplifies incident photons and compresses their phase space, enabling small, high-gain detectors to efficiently detect photons from large areas at lower costs.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel method combining photon amplification and phase-space compression using vacuum photocathodes and scintillators, enhancing large-area photon detection efficiency.

Findings

OCA tubes effectively amplify incident photons.

They compress optical phase space onto small detectors.

Potential for cost-effective large-area photon detection.

Abstract

We describe a simple technique to both amplify incident photons and compress their angular x area phase space. These Optical Compressor Amplifier Tubes (OCA Tube) use techniques analogous to image intensifiers, using vacuum photocathodes to detect photons as converted to photoelectrons, amplify the photons via photoelectron bombardment of fast scintillators, and compress the optical phase space onto optical fibers, so that small, high gain photodetectors, like miniature PMT or SiPM, can be used to detect photons from large areas, at comparatively low cost. The properties of and benefits of OCA tubes are described.