2.7 Single photoelectron sensitivity

2 Performance Considerations

2.7 Single photoelectron sensitivity

As seen in Tables 2-5 - 2-7 the performance of the detector rapidly degrades if the electronics (or the gain of the photomultiplier) cannot provide a single photoelectron sensitivity. Assuming a sensitivity of better than one photoelectron the remaining electron contamination is 0.03% of the electrons crossing the AMS volume. However, this contamination is becoming significant if the single photoelectron sensitivity is not maintained. As discussed in section 2.4 above, the phototubes are going to be selected as to guarantee the required quantum efficiency and gain.

Issue: Draft - Revision: 04 - Last Modified: 20 April 1997