The gain of a
photomultiplier is given by the equation

,
where

is the efficiency of
collection of photoelectrons on the first dynode,

is the secondary emission ratio, i.e. the number of secondary electrons emitted for
each electron incident on the dynode and

is the number of dynodes.
Source:
PAC, 1995, 67, 1745
(Nomenclature, symbols, units and their usage in spectrochemical analysis-XI. Detection
of radiation (IUPAC Recommendations 1995))
on page 1753
Cite as:
IUPAC. Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 2nd ed. (the "Gold Book"). Compiled by
A. D. McNaught and A. Wilkinson. Blackwell Scientific Publications, Oxford (1997).
XML on-line corrected version: http://goldbook.iupac.org (2006-) created by M. Nic,
J. Jirat, B. Kosata; updates compiled by A. Jenkins. ISBN 0-9678550-9-8.
https://doi.org/10.1351/goldbook.