Charged particle timing at sub-25 picosecond precision: The PICOSEC detection concept

F. Iguaz (1) , J. Bortfeldt (2) , M. Brunbauer (2) , C. David (2) , D. Desforge (1) , G. Fanourakis (3) , J. Franchi (2) , M. Gallinaro (4) , F. Garcia (5) , I. Giomataris (1) , D. Gonzalez-Diaz (6) , T. Gustavsson (7) , C. Guyot (1) , M. Kebbiri (1) , P. Legou (1) , J. Liu (8) , M. Lupberger (2) , O. Maillard (1) , I. Manthos (9) , H. Müller (2) , V. Niaouris (9) , E. Oliveri (2) , T. Papaevangelou (1) , K. Paraschou (9) , M. Pomorski (10) , B. Qi (8) , F. Resnati (2) , L. Ropelewski (2) , D. Sampsonidis (9) , T. Schneider (2) , P. Schwemling (1) , L. Sohl (1) , M. van Stenis (2) , P. Thuiner (2) , Y. Tsipolitis (11) , S. Tzamarias (9) , R. Veenhof (11) , X. Wang (8) , S. White (1) , Z. Zhang (8) , Y. Zhou (8)

1 IRFU - Institut de Recherches sur les lois Fondamentales de l'Univers
2 CERN - European Organization for Nuclear Research
3 NCSR - National Center for Scientific Research "Demokritos"
4 Faculdade de Ciencias da Universidade de Lisboa
5 Helsingin yliopisto = Helsingfors universitet = University of Helsinki
6 USC - Universidade de Santiago de Compostela [Spain]
7 DICO - Dynamique et Interactions en phase Condensée
8 USTC - University of Science and Technology of China [Hefei]
9 Department of Physics [Thessaloniki]
10 LCD-LIST - Laboratoire Capteurs Diamant
11 NTUA - National Technical University of Athens [Athens]

The PICOSEC detection concept consists in a “two-stage” Micromegas detector coupled to a Cherenkov radiator and equipped with a photocathode. A proof of concept has already been tested: a single-photoelectron response of 76 ps has been measured with a femtosecond UV laser at CEA/IRAMIS, while a time resolution of 24 ps with a mean yield of 10.4 photoelectrons has been measured for 150 GeV muons at the CERN SPS H4 secondary line. This work will present the main results of this prototype and the performance of the different detector configurations tested in 2016–2018 beam campaigns: readouts (bulk, resistive, multipad) and photocathodes (metallic+CsI, pure metallic, diamond). Finally, the prospects for building a demonstrator based on PICOSEC detection concept for future experiments will be discussed. In particular, the scaling strategies for a large area coverage with a multichannel readout plane, the R&D on solid converters for building a robust photocathode and the different resistive configurations for a robust readout.

Keywords: Picosecond timing; MPGD; Micromegas; Photocathodes; Timing algorithms

Domains: Instrumentation and Detectors [physics.ins-det]; Nuclear Experiment [nucl-ex]; Optics [physics.optics]

F. Iguaz, J. Bortfeldt, M. Brunbauer, C. David, D. Desforge, et al.. Charged particle timing at sub-25 picosecond precision: The PICOSEC detection concept. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, 2019, ⟨10.1016/j.nima.2018.08.070⟩. ⟨cea-01917254⟩