Experimental measurements of the radial spreading of photoelectrons emitted from a multi-alkali photocathode in a MCP-based photomultiplier tube have shown that, for photon wavelengths of 455 nm, 515 nm and 625 nm, the maximum initial energies of the emitted photoelectrons are approximately 0.3 eV, 0.2 eV and 0.1 eV respectively. Combining these experimental results with simulations performed using the SIMION simulation package, a compact radio-frequency photoelectron multiplier tube with a temporal resolution better than 10 ps is proposed. The device would be suitable for applications in several fields, particularly in medical optical instruments employing time-correlated single-photon counting.
@article{arxiv.2603.11887,
title = {Compact sub-10 ps Resolution Radio Frequency Photomultiplier Tube},
author = {Sergey Abrahamyan and Simon Zhamkochyan and Hasmik Rostomyan and Amur Margaryan and Hayk Elbakyan and Aram Kakoyan and Artashes Papyan and Anna Safaryan and John Annand and Kenneth Livingston and Rachel Montgomery and Patrick Achenbach and Josef Pochodzalla and Dimiter Balabanski and Satoshi Nakamura and Viatcheslav Sharyy and Dominique Yvon and Ani Aprahamian and Vanik Kakoyan},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2603.11887},
year = {2026}
}