The TORCH detector R&D: status and perspectives

T. Gys, N. Brook, L. Castillo García, D. Cussans, K. Föhl, R. Forty, C. Frei, R. Gao, N. Harnew, D. Piedigrossi, J. Rademacker, A. Ros García, M. van Dijk

Research output: Contribution to journalArticle (Academic Journal)peer-review

13 Citations (Scopus)
210 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Abstract TORCH (Timing Of internally Reflected CHerenkov photons) is a time-of-flight detector for particle identification at low momentum. It has been originally proposed for the LHCb experiment upgrade. TORCH is using plates of quartz radiator in a modular design. A fraction of the Cherenkov photons produced by charged particles passing through this radiator propagate by total internal reflection, they emerge at the edges and are subsequently focused onto fast, position-sensitive single-photon detectors. The recorded position and arrival time of the photons are used to precisely reconstruct their trajectory and propagation time in the quartz. The on-going R&D programme aims at demonstrating the TORCH basic concept through the realization of a full detector module and has been organized on the following main development lines: micro-channel plate photon detectors featuring the required granularity and lifetime, dedicated fast front-end electronics preserving the picosecond timing information provided by single photons, and high-quality quartz radiator and focussing optics minimizing photon losses. The present paper reports on the TORCH results successfully achieved in the laboratory and in charged particle beam tests. It will also introduce the latest developments towards a final full-scale module prototype.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)156-159
Number of pages4
JournalNuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment
Volume876
Early online date21 Feb 2017
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 21 Dec 2017

Keywords

  • Time-of-flight
  • Cherenkov light
  • Micro-channel plate photon detectors

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