Digital pulse-timing technique for the neutron detector array NEDA

• Published in: Nuclear instruments & methods in physics research. Section A, Accelerators, spectrometers, detectors and associated equipment Accelerators, spectrometers, detectors and associated equipment, 2015-03, Vol.775, p.71-76
• Main Authors: Modamio, V., Valiente-Dobón, J.J., Jaworski, G., Hüyük, T., Triossi, A., Egea, J., Di Nitto, A., Söderström, P.-A., Agramunt Ros, J., de Angelis, G., de France, G., Erduran, M.N., Ertürk, S., Gadea, A., González, V., Kownacki, J., Moszynski, M., Nyberg, J., Palacz, M., Sanchis, E., Wadsworth, R.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Algorithms; Arrays; BC501A; Computational fluid dynamics; Constant fraction discriminator; Detectors; Digital; Digital timing; Instrumentation and Detectors; Liquid scintillator; Mathematical models; NEDA; Neutron detector; Neutron detectors; Photomultiplier tubes; Physics; Sampling
• ISSN: 0168-9002; 1872-9576; 1872-9576
• DOI: 10.1016/j.nima.2014.12.002

A new digital pulse-timing algorithm, to be used with the future neutron detector array NEDA, has been developed and tested. The time resolution of four 5in. diameter photomultiplier tubes (XP4512, R4144, R11833-100, and ET9390-kb), coupled to a cylindrical 5in. by 5in. BC501A liquid scintillator detector was measured by employing digital sampling electronics and a constant fraction discriminator (CFD) algorithm. The zero crossing of the CFD algorithm was obtained with a cubic spline interpolation, which was continuous up to the second derivative. The performance of the algorithm was studied at sampling rates of 500MS/s and 200MS/s. The time resolution obtained with the digital electronics was compared to the values acquired with a standard analog CFD. The result of this comparison shows that the time resolution from the analog and the digital measurements at 500MS/s and at 200MS/s are within 15% for all the tested photomultiplier tubes.