Study of the timing performance of micro-channel plate photomultiplier for use as an active layer in a shower maximum detector

Abstract

We continue the study of micro-channel plate photomultiplier (MCP-PMT) as the active element of a shower maximum (SM) detector. We present test beam results obtained with Photek 240 and Photonis XP85011 MCP-PMTs devices. For proton beams, we obtained a time resolution of 9.6ps, representing a significant improvement over past results using the same time of flight system. For electron beams, the time resolution obtained for this new type of SM detector is measured to be at the level of 13ps when we use Photek 240 as the active element of the SM. Using the Photonis XP85011 MCP-PMT as the active element of the SM, we performed time resolution measurements with pixel readout, and achieved a TR better than 30ps, The pixel readout was observed to improve upon the TR compared to the case where the individual channels were summed.