photomultiplier tube

noun

pho·​to·​mul·​ti·​pli·​er tube ˌfō-tō-ˈməl-tə-ˌplī(-ə)r- 

: a vacuum tube that detects light especially from dim sources through the use of photoemission and successive instances of secondary emission to produce enough electrons to generate a useful current

called also photomultiplier

Examples of photomultiplier tube in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Besides the advantage of needing far fewer photomultiplier tubes to detect high-energy neutrinos, Domogatsky pointed out that only a detector in the Northern Hemisphere could see neutrinos from the center of our galaxy. —Anil Ananthaswamy, Discover Magazine, 29 June 2010

Hundreds of photomultiplier tubes watch for the flashes of Cherenkov light at the bottom of Lake Baikal. —Anil Ananthaswamy, Discover Magazine, 29 June 2010

The xenon vats are ringed by a photomultiplier tube (PMT) array containing 500 sensitive light detectors designed to spot faint flashes of light. —Robert Lea, Popular Mechanics, 29 July 2022

The tank is lined with 13,000 photomultiplier tubes, which detect brief flashes of light when neutrinos speed through the tank. —Dennis Overbye, New York Times, 15 Apr. 2020

IceCube, an international observatory run by 300 scientists from 12 countries, consists of more than 5,000 sensitive photomultiplier tubes embedded in grid encompassing a cubic kilometer of ice at the South Pole. —Dennis Overbye, New York Times, 12 July 2018

The Florida team came up with a simpler approach using a cheap, low-power laser and a common light detector called a photomultiplier tube, which records the total intensity of photons falling on it. —Prachi Patel, Scientific American, 1 Sep. 2017

Word History

First Known Use

1941, in the meaning defined above

Medical Definition

photomultiplier tube

noun

pho·​to·​mul·​ti·​pli·​er tube ˌfōt-ō-ˈməl-tə-ˌplī(-ə)r- 

: a vacuum tube that detects light especially from dim sources through the use of photoemission and successive instances of secondary emission to produce enough electrons to generate a useful current

called also photomultiplier