High dynamic range detector with controllable photon flux functionality

An ion detection system for detecting incident ions including an ion-to-electron converter for converting incident ions to secondary electrons, an accelerating assembly including at least one of an electric field and a magnetic field for acceleration and transfer of the secondary electrons to a scintillator, the scintillator for converting the accelerated secondary electrons to an initial flux of photons, a photon channeling assembly including a first photon channel and a second photon channel, wherein the photon channeling assembly is configured for separating the initial flux of photons into at least a first photon flux channeled into the first photon channel and a second photon flux channeled into the second photon channel, and at least one photodetector for detecting at least one of a first optical signal generated at the first photon channel, and a second optical signal generated at the second photon channel.