A Multi-strip Multi-gap RPC Barrel for Time-of-Flight Measurements

• Published in: Nuclear instruments & methods in physics research. Section A, Accelerators, spectrometers, detectors and associated equipment Accelerators, spectrometers, detectors and associated equipment, 2011-08, Vol.646 (1), p.27-34
• Main Authors: Kiš, M., Ciobanu, M., Deppner, I., Hildenbrand, K.D., Herrmann, N., Kang, T.I., Kim, Y.J., Koczon, P., Leifels, Y., Marquardt, M., Petrovici, M., Piasecki, K., Ryu, M.S., Schüttauf, A., Simion, V., Weinert, J., Zhang, X.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Accelerators; Anodes; Design engineering; Detectors; Electronics; FOPI; Kaons; MMRPC; Multi-strip; Segmented anode; Shells; Synchrotrons; Timing RPC; ToF
• ISSN: 0168-9002; 1872-9576
• DOI: 10.1016/j.nima.2011.02.076

The FOPI detector [1] at the heavy-ion synchrotron SIS-18 at GSI in Darmstadt has upgraded part of its time-of-flight (ToF) system by adding a new sub-detector shell (called the MMRPC Barrel) that is made out of Multi-strip Multi-gap Resistive-Plate Counters (MMRPCs). The MMRPC Barrel has an active area of 5 m 2 covered by 2400 individual anode strips [2,3] which are read out at both ends by custom-designed electronics [4,5]. With these multi-strip anodes we have obtained an enhanced detector granularity with 95% efficiency and a ToF resolution σ ToF better than 90 ps which increases the identification limit for charged kaons up to laboratory momenta of at least 1 GeV/ c. In this paper we report on the design, construction and operational characteristics of the MMRPC Barrel and describe its performance during the first experiments.