A time-of-flight detector of low-energy ions for an accelerating mass-spectrometer

The results of experiments with a time-of-flight detector for detecting rare ions at the output of the accelerating mass spectrometer of the Institute of Nuclear Physics (Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences) are described. The operation of this detector is based on detection of electron emission from thin films by means of microchannel plates. Owing to the small thickness of films, ions can sequentially pass through several films—this is the basis of the time-of-flight system for identifying isotopes. The high time resolution of detectors allows a significant decrease in the external-radiation background compared to one semiconductor complete-absorption detector that measures the ion energy.