The TORCH time-of-flight detector

Conference item

The TORCH detector is a time-of-flight system that is being developed for use in particle physics experiments with the aim of providing particle identification, over a wide area, in the momentum range 2 to 10 GeV/c. The detector exploits prompt Cherenkov light produced by charge particles traversing a 10 mm thick quartz plate. Photons propagate via total-internal reflection and are focussed onto a detector plane comprising position-sensitive micro-channel plate photomultiplier (MCP-PMT) detectors. The goal is to achieve a resolution of 15 ps per particle by combining information from around 30 detected photons, given a single-photon resolution of 70 ps. The MCP-PMT detectors have been developed with a commercial partner (Photek), leading to the delivery of a square tube with a 53-by-53 mm active area and 8-by-128 pixel equivalent. A small-scale TORCH demonstrator has been operated in beam tests and preliminary results indicate a single-photon resolution better than 100 ps. Progress towards a larger-scale system with 11 MCP-PMTs is presented.

Authors: Blake, T; Bhasin, S; Brook, NH; Conneely, T; Cussans, D

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Sissa Medialab
• Journal: Proceedings of Science
• Volume: 340
• Article number: 667
• Publication date: 2019-08-02
• Acceptance date: 2018-11-22
• Event title: The 39th International Conference on High Energy Physics (ICHEP2018)
• Event location: Seoul, South Korea
• Event website: http://www.ichep2018.org/
• Event start date: 2018-07-04
• Event end date: 2018-07-11
• DOI: 10.22323/1.340.0667
• EISSN: 1824-8039
• Language: English
• Keywords: FFR