bulk-conductive microchannel plates and enhanced image intensifier

Bulk-conductive microchannel plates (MCPs) made of semiconducting glasses have peculiar characteristics such as slant electric field in microchannels, electron gain always obtained under non-saturated condition in channels, as well as long service life and high signal-to-noise ratio without ion feed-back during operation. The glass-formation region and properties of semiconducting glasses for making bulk-conductive MCPs have been discussed. Night vision devices with bulk-conductive MCPs are considered as enhanced image intensifier due to avoiding the electron scrubbing pre-treatment which greatly reduces the electron gain of conventional MCPs. A thickened piece of bulk-conductive MCP, which can be operated at higher voltage to obtain higher electron gain under non-saturated condition , may be used as a substitution of V- or Z-pack products of conventional MCP for photon counting.