Systematic studies of micro-channel plate PMTs

DIRC Cherenkov detectors will be the main devices for π/Kπ/K separation at the PANDA experiment at FAIR. Due to their advantageous properties in terms of time resolution and especially inside magnetic fields micro-channel plate photo multipliers (MCP-PMTs) are very attractive sensor candidates. In this paper we present the investigation of several types of multi-anode MCP-PMTs. The darkcount rate, the behavior inside a magnetic field of up to 2 T, the time resolution, the gain homogeneity and crosstalk of multi-pixel MCP-PMTs were found to be well suitable for the PANDA requirements. Even the rate capability of the latest models from Burle-Photonis and Hamamatsu is satisfactory. Although a big step forward was accomplished with these recently available MCP-PMTs, the lifetime is still not sufficient for the photon densities expected for the PANDA DIRCs.