Performance of a prototype TORCH time-of-flight detector

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, T. Jones, M. Kreps, J. Milnes, D. PiedigrossiJ. Rademacker, J. C. Smallwood

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

4 Citations (SciVal)

Abstract

TORCH is a novel time-of-flight detector, designed to provide charged particle identification of pions, kaons and protons in the momentum range 2–20 GeV/c over a 9.5 m flight path. A detector module, comprising a 10 mm thick quartz plate, provides a source of Cherenkov photons which propagate via total internal reflection to one end of the plate. Here, the photons are focused onto an array of custom-designed Micro-Channel Plate Photo-Multiplier Tubes (MCP-PMTs) which measure their positions and arrival times. The target time resolution per photon is 70 ps which, for 30 detected photons per charged particle, results in a 10–15 ps time-of-flight resolution. A 1.25 m length TORCH prototype module employing two MCP-PMTs has been developed, and tested at the CERN PS using a charged hadron beam of 8 GeV/c momentum. The construction of the module, the properties of the MCP-PMTs and the readout electronics are described. Measurements of the collected photon yields and single-photon time resolutions have been performed as a function of particle entry points on the plate and compared to expectations. These studies show that the performance of the TORCH prototype approaches the design goals for the full-scale detector.

Original languageEnglish
Article number168181
JournalNuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment
Volume1050
Early online date6 Mar 2023
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - May 2023

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
The support is acknowledged of the Science and Technology Research Council, UK , grant number ST/P002692/1 , and of the European Research Council through an FP7 Advanced Grant ( ERC-2011-AdG299175-TORCH ).

Data Availability
Data will be made available on request

Funding

The support is acknowledged of the Science and Technology Research Council, UK , grant number ST/P002692/1 , and of the European Research Council through an FP7 Advanced Grant ( ERC-2011-AdG299175-TORCH ). We acknowledge the contributions from the CERN T9 beam operators. We would like to thank Ankush Mitra, Jeanette Chattaway of the University of Warwick, Keith Clark of the University of Bristol, Mark Jones and Peter Hastings at the University of Oxford, and the staff of the workshops at the Universities of Bristol, Edinburgh, Oxford and Warwick Departments of Physics for their help in the production of the Proto-TORCH mechanical frame and electronics. We also thank Jon Lapington of the University of Leicester for his advice and insightful discussions on the MCP-PMTs and Chris Slatter of Photek for his work on their development. An individual author (TB) has received support from the Royal Society (UK) . The support is acknowledged of the Science and Technology Research Council, UK, grant number ST/P002692/1, and of the European Research Council through an FP7 Advanced Grant (ERC-2011-AdG299175-TORCH). We acknowledge the contributions from the CERN T9 beam operators. We would like to thank Ankush Mitra, Jeanette Chattaway of the University of Warwick, Keith Clark of the University of Bristol, Mark Jones and Peter Hastings at the University of Oxford, and the staff of the workshops at the Universities of Bristol, Edinburgh, Oxford and Warwick Departments of Physics for their help in the production of the Proto-TORCH mechanical frame and electronics. We also thank Jon Lapington of the University of Leicester for his advice and insightful discussions on the MCP-PMTs and Chris Slatter of Photek for his work on their development. An individual author (TB) has received support from the Royal Society (UK).

Keywords

  • Cherenkov radiation
  • MCP-PMT
  • Particle identification
  • Time-of-flight
  • TORCH

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Nuclear and High Energy Physics
  • Instrumentation

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