The PANDA experiment at FAIR will use DIRC detectors for the separation of hadrons. The compactness of the PANDA detector requires the image planes of these detectors to be placed inside the magnetic field of the solenoid. Due to this and other boundary conditions MCP-PMTs were identified as the only suitable photon sensors. Until recently the major obstacle for an application of MCP-PMTs in high rate experiments like PANDA were serious aging problems which led to damage at the photo-cathode and a fast declining quantum efficiency as the integrated anode charge (IAC) increased. With new countermeasures against the aging, in particular due to the application of an atomic layer deposition (ALD) technique to coat the MCP pores, the lifetime of MCP-PMTs has meanwhile increased by a factor >50 which is fully sufficient for PANDA. The recent results of our long-term lifetime measurements are discussed. New 2-inch MCP-PMT prototypes from Hamamatsu show an encouraging behavior. However, the currently best performing MCP-PMT is a 2-inch PHOTONIS tube with two ALD-layers which reaches an IAC of >16 C/cm2 without any visible sign of aging. In the second part of these proceedings a new data acquisition system of the PADIWA/TRB type is presented which allows a quasi-parallel measurement of many MCP-PMT performance parameters. Especially unwanted effects like dark-count rate, crosstalk, ion afterpulsing, and recoil electrons can be studied in more detail than ever before. Exemplary results for these parameters are shown. The discussed DAQ system will be used for the comprehensive data quality checks of the MCP-PMTs being built into the DIRCs.

The favored photon sensors for the DIRC (detection of internally reflected Cherenkov light) detectors at the PANDA (Anti-proton Annihilation at Darmstadt) experiment at FAIR (Facility for anti-proton and ion research) are microchannel-plate photomultipliers (MCP-PMTs). The main problem until a few years ago was the limited lifetime of the MCP-PMTs caused by a rapid decrease in quantum efficiency (QE) of the photo cathode (PC) with increasing integrated anode charge (IAC). These limitations are overcome by applying an atomic layer deposition (ALD) coating on the MCPs, as recently done by PHOTONIS and Hamamatsu. During the last years tests of lifetime enhanced MCP-PMTs were performed and their results were compared. For this the QE was measured in dependence of the IAC as function of the wavelength and position dependent across the PC. The best performing tubes show a lifetime increase compared to not enhanced devices by a factor > 50 with an IAC > 13 C/cm2. Additionally, performance results of new 2 inch Hamamatsu tubes and a new high QE PHOTONIS tube are presented.

Microchannel plate (MCP) PMTs are very attractive photon sensors for low light level applications in strong magnetic fields. However, until recently the main drawback of MCP-PMTs was their aging behavior which manifests itself in a limited lifetime due to a rapidly decreasing quantum effciency (QE) of the photo cathode (PC) as the integrated anode charge (IAC) increases. In the latest models of PHOTONIS, Hamamatsu, and BINP novel techniques are applied to avoid these aging effects which are supposed to be mainly caused by feedback ion impinging on the PC and damaging it. Since more than four years we are running a long-term aging test with new lifetime-enhanced MCP-PMT models by simultaneously illuminating various PMTs with roughly the same photon rate. This allows a fair comparison of the lifetime of all investigated MCP-PMTs and will give some insight in the best techniques to be applied for a lifetime enhancement. In this paper the results of comprehensive aging tests will be discussed. Gain, dark count rate and QE were investigated for their dependence on the IAC. The QE was measured spectrally resolved and as a function of the position across the PC to identify regions where the damage develops first. For the best performing tubes the lifetime improvement compared to former MCP-PMTs is a factor of ~50 based on an IAC of meanwhile >10 C/cm2. This breakthrough in the lifetime of MCP-PMTs was achieved by coating the MCP pores with an atomic layer deposition (ALD) technique.