XYT DETECTORS FOR INSTRUMENTATION

A NOVEL CLASS OF TIME AND POSITION SENSITIVE (XYT) PARTICLE DETECTOR AND SUPPORTING ELECTRONICS IS PROPOSED WHICH CAN AFFORD A PRACTICAL MEANS OF COMBINING IMAGING AND TIME-OF-FLIGHT (TOF) ANALYSES IN A VARIETY OF ADVANCED INSTRUMENTS. DETECTOR SYSTEMS FOR PHOTONS, ELECTRONS AND IONS ARE TYPICALLY THE FIRST COMPONENTS IN MATERIALS CHARACTERIZATION INSTRUMENTS; FUNDAMENTAL IMPROVEMENTS HERE CAN HAVE PROFOUND IMPACT IN BOTH THE QUANTITY AND QUALITY OF INFORMATION PRODUCED IN RESEARCH SYSTEMS. POSITION SENSITIVE (PSD) SINGLE EVENT COUNTING SYSTEMS PROVIDE AN IMPORTANT MEANS OF BOTH IMAGING AND SPECTRAL MULTIPLEXING, WHILE TOF METHODS ARE BECOMING INCREASINGLY IMPORTANT IN HIGH SPEED, HIGH RESOLUTION MASS SPECTROMETRY. NO HIGH PERFORMANCE, GENERAL SOLUTION FOR COMBINING THESE TWO APPROACHES IN ONE DATA ACQUISTION SYSTEM EXISTS, HOWEVER. THE GOAL OF THIS PHASE I PROGRAM IS TO DEMONSTRATE THAT THESE FEATURES CAN BE SUCCESSFULLY COMBINED USING AN INNOVATIVE COMBINATION OF SCHMIDT INSTRUMENTS' PROVEN TOF ELECTRONICS AND RECENTLY CONCEIVED DELAY-LINE READOUT TECHNIQUES FOR FAST POSITION ENCODING.