Particle detector with three microchannel wafers

A particle detector consisting of three series-connected microchannel wafers is described. The detector provides a singleelectron gain of 2x10/sup 7/ without using extreme wafer operating conditions and the width of the pulse amplitude distribution is approximately 100%. The particle sources used were a tritium beta source, a Pierce electron gun with spherical electrodes, and a /sup 233/ Pu alpha source. The load characteristics of one microchannel wafer for various supply voltages were measured.