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Microchannel plate resolution

Several MCP manufacturers use the American MIL Spec technique based on the USAF test pattern (1951) to characterize MCP resolution. 

Limiting resolution is dominated by MCP pore/pitch as shown below:

For example, with 12 micron pitch, there are 80 MCP pores per mm, corresponding to 40 lp/mm.

Resolution shown corresponds to single MCP assemblies with a MCP-phosphor screen distance optimized for high resolution (0.7 -1 mm). In double (Chevron, or V-stack) and triple (Z-stack) assemblies resolution decrease due to increasing volume of electron avalanche.

High gain tubes are most commonly used in photon counting systems.  The superior pulse height distribution is used to discriminate between photon events and electronic noise and the resolution performance can be recovered by suitable event-processing software.  Photon counting systems can in fact achieve resolution only limited by the size of the microchannel plate pores (usually 10 microns).

Phosphor particle size does effect resolution and should be considered also.

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