New developments from the TORCH R&D project

T. Jones, S. Bhasin, T. Blake, N. H. Brook, M. F. Cicala, T. Conneely, D. Cussans, M. W.U. van Dijk, R. Forty, C. Frei, E. P.M. Gabriel, R. Gao, T. Gershon, T. Gys, T. Hadavizadeh, T. H. Hancock, N. Harnew, M. Kreps, J. Milnes, D. PiedigrossiJ. Rademacker, J. C. Smallwood

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

1 Citation (SciVal)

Abstract

TORCH is a large-area and high-precision time-of-flight detector, designed to provide charged particle identification over a 2–20GeV/c momentum range. The TORCH detector comprises a 10 mm thick quartz radiator, instrumented with photon detectors, which precisely time and measure the arrival positions of the Cherenkov photons. The photon detectors are micro-channel plate photo-multiplier tubes (MCP-PMTs) comprising a finely segmented anode of 64 × 64 anode pads, electronically ganged into 64 × 8 pixels, over a 53 × 53mm2 area, an excellent intrinsic time resolution of ∼ 30ps, and a long lifetime of up to ≳ 5C/cm2. The current version of the MCP-PMTs used by TORCH have been developed with an industrial partner, Photek Ltd, to satisfy the stringent requirements of the detector. The TORCH R&D programme has successfully demonstrated the detector concept through extensive laboratory and beam tests. A TORCH prototype has been constructed and has yielded encouraging results when exposed to low momentum charged hadrons. Characteristic patterns of Cherenkov photons have been recorded, illustrating the required spatial accuracy and timing resolution of 70 ps per photon. Both laboratory and beam test results are approaching the design goals of the TORCH detector.

Original languageEnglish
Article number167535
JournalNuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment
Volume1045
Early online date9 Oct 2022
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jan 2023

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
The support is acknowledged of the Science and Technology Research Council, UK , grant number ST/P002692/1 , of the European Research Council through an FP7 Advanced Grant ( ERC-2011-AdG 299175-TORCH ) and of the Royal Society, UK .

Keywords

  • Particle identification
  • Time-of-flight detectors

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Nuclear and High Energy Physics
  • Instrumentation

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