The characteristics of the newly designed microchannel plate detector in a strong magnetic field

A gold neutral beam probe system which uses a microchannel plate (MCP) as a beam detector is being constructed in order to measure the electrostatic potential at the inner mirror throat (IMT) of the plug/barrier cell in the tandem mirror. The MCP detector was newly designed so as to be able to be used in the IMT strong magnetic field. The characteristics of the MCP gain were measured on a test stand with the strong magnetic field. The characteristic curves of the relative MCP gain were described as functions of the magnetic field strength, the MCP bias voltage, and the angle between the magnetic field and the capillary axis of the MCP. It was found that the newly designed MCP detector was useful for the potential measurement at the IMT region.