New techniques for single photon timing in the picosecond regime

The aim of this programme is to investigate the use of novel materials and designs for vacuum electron multiplication devices within photomultiplier tubes, to improve their performance in terms of single photon timing, detector miniaturization, and electronic readout integration.

The student will develop technologies exploiting the ultimate timing potential of photomultiplier tubes (PMT). Conventional PMTs and microchannel plate intensifiers utilise reflection dynode geometries which allow a multitude of electron trajectories giving rise to time-broadening of ~25 picoseconds. New electron gain techniques will be explored to achieve an order of magnitude improvement to in timing performance, opening doors to a range of new ultra-fast timing applications in areas such as astronomy (e.g .intensity interferometry), particle physics, medical imaging, and quantum imaging.

The student will use simulations to investigate novel electron multiplication designs and dynode materials, and experimentation to develop and test novel transmission dynode and other miniaturized electron gain structures. The overall project goal is to work towards picosecond photon timing in a miniaturized detector with an integrated electronic readout device.