Preliminary demonstration of an IonCCD as an alternative pixelated anode for direct MCP readout in a compact MS-based detector

We report on the preliminary testing of a new position-sensitive detector (PSD) by combining a microchannel plate (MCP) and a charge-sensitive pixilated anode with a direct readout based on charge-coupled detector (CCD) technology, which will be referred to as IonCCD (Hadjar et al. J Am Soc Mass Spectrom 22(4):612–623, 2011; Johnson et al. J Am Soc Mass Spectrom 22(8):1388–1394, 2011; Hadjar et al. J Am Soc Mass Spectrom 22(10):1872–1884, 2011). This work exploits the recently discovered electron detection capability of the IonCCD (Hadjar et al. J Am Soc Mass Spectrom 22(4):612–623, 2011), allowing it to be used directly behind an MC. This MCP-IonCCD configuration potentially obviates the need for electro-optical ion detector systems (EOIDs), which typically feature a relatively difficult-to-implement 5-kV power source as well as a phosphorus screen behind the MCP for conversion of electrons to photons prior to signal generation in a photosensitive CCD. Thus, the new system (MCP-IonCCD) has the potential to be smaller, simpler, more robust, and more cost efficient than EOID-based technologies in many applications. The use of the IonCCD as direct MCP readout anode, as opposed to its direct use as an ion detector, will benefit from the instant three-to-four-order-of-magnitude gain of the MCP with virtually no additional noise. The signal/noise gain can be used for either sensitivity or speed enhancement of the detector. The speed enhancement may motivate the development of faster IonCCD readout speeds (currently at 2.7 ms) to achieve the 2 kHz frame rate for which the IonCCD chip was designed, a must for transient signal applications. The presented detector exhibits clear potential not only as a trace analysis detector in scan-free mass spectrometry and electron spectroscopy but also as a compact detector for photon and particle imaging applications.