Design and performance of micro-channel plate based particle tracking detector for astrophysical ([formula omitted], p) reactions

Abstract

The micro-channel plate based particle tracking detector described here is part of the detector system used in a series of measurements of astrophysical (α, p) reactions, which will be studied at the Radioactive Ion Beam Line in Lanzhou, China. This detector will provide on a particle-by-particle basis tracking information and arrival time of radioactive beams with intensities up to 105 particles per second. The key requirements of the experiments to the detector are that the spatial resolution is below 1 mm, the time resolution is better than 1 ns and the energy loss is less than for a parallel plate avalanche counter. The current prototype is composed of two micro-channel plate detectors with a compact electrostatic field construction and a delay-line readout. Based on the results of α-particle tests, one micro-channel detector can achieve a position resolution of 552μm full width at half maximum on the x axis and 735μm on the y axis. The tracking system can achieve 705 ps time resolution and can cope with a beam intensity of up to 5 ×106 particles per second.