Effective evaluation of the noise characteristics of solar-blind Cs2Te ultraviolet image intensifiers

In practice, for a higher signal to noise ratio of the solar-blind ultraviolet (UV) image intensifier, one of the most meaningful work is to effectively evaluate its noise characteristics and to obtain suitable work voltages. In this paper, we have proposed an evaluation method and then implemented an effective evaluation of the noise characteristics of a typical solar-blind Cs2Te UV image intensifier, through the measurement of signal to noise ratio at the output end (SNRout) of this image intensifier in different work conditions. The evaluation results show that the SNRout of a Cs2Te UV image intensifier increases as the photocathode voltage and the voltage across MCP increase within an appropriate range. Additionally, the voltage across phosphor screen has almost no impact on the SNRout. More specifically, the suitable values of Cs2Te photocathode voltage, the voltage across MCP and the voltage across phosphor screen are −300 V, 800 V, and 4500 V, respectively.