  We report on the progress in the study of cascaded GEM and GEM/MHSP gas
avalanche photomultipliers operating at atmospheric pressure, with CsI and
bialkali photocathodes. They have single-photon sensitivity, ns time resolution
and good localization properties. We summarize operational aspects and results,
with the highlight of a high-gain stable gated operation of a visible-light
device. Of particular importance are the results of a recent ion-backflow
reduction study in different cascaded multipliers, affecting the detector's
stability and the photocathode's liftime. We report on the significant progress
in ion-blocking and provide first results on bialkali-photocathode aging under
gas multiplication.
