The Tynode:a new vacuum electron multiplier

By placing, in vacuum, a stack of transmission dynodes (tynodes) on top of a CMOS pixel chip, a single free electron detector could be made with outstanding performance in terms of spatial and time resolution. The essential object is the tynode: an ultra thin membrane, which emits, at the impact of an energetic electron on one side, a multiple of electrons at the other side. The electron yields of tynodes have been calculated by means of GEANT-4 Monte Carlo simulations, applying special low-energy extensions. The results are in line with another simulation based on a continuous charge-diffusion model.