Invited article: a test-facility for large-area microchannel plate detector assemblies using a pulsed sub-picosecond laser.

The Large Area Picosecond Photodetector Collaboration is developing large-area fast photodetectors with time resolution </~10 ps and space resolution </~1 mm based on atomic layer deposition-coated glass Micro-Channel Plates (MCPs). We have assembled a facility at Argonne National Laboratory for characterizing the performance of a wide variety of microchannel plate configurations and anode structures in configurations approaching complete detector systems. The facility consists of a pulsed Ti:Sapphire laser with a pulse duration ≈100 fs, an optical system allowing the laser to be scanned in two dimensions, and a computer-controlled data-acquisition system capable of reading out 60 channels of anode signals with a sampling rate of over 10 GS/s. The laser can scan on the surface of a sealed large-area photodetector, or can be introduced into a large vacuum chamber for tests on bare 8 in.-square MCP plates or into a smaller chamber for tests on 33-mm circular substrates. We present the experimental setup, detector calibration, data acquisition, analysis tools, and typical results demonstrating the performance of the test facility.