Tracking rare-isotope beams with microchannel plates

TL;DR

This paper presents a microchannel-plate detector system capable of tracking high-energy heavy-ion beams with high precision, including position and timing, suitable for projectile-fragmentation experiments.

Contribution

The study adapts existing low-energy beam detectors for high-energy beams by increasing magnetic field strength, achieving sub-nanosecond timing and 1 mm position resolution.

Findings

Achieved sub-nanosecond timing resolution

Attained ~1 mm position resolution

Successfully tracked beams up to 5×10^5 pps

Abstract

A system of two microchannel-plate detectors has been successfully implemented for tracking projectile-fragmentation beams. The detectors provide interaction positions, angles, and arrival times of ions at the reaction target. The current design is an adaptation of an assembly used for low-energy beams ($\sim$1.4 MeV/nucleon). In order to improve resolution in tracking high-energy heavy-ion beams, the magnetic field strength between the secondary-electron accelerating foil and the microchannel plate had to be increased substantially. Results from an experiment using a 37-MeV/nucleon ${}^{56}$Ni beam show that the tracking system can achieve sub-nanosecond timing resolution and a position resolution of $\sim$1 mm for beam intensities up to $5\times10^{5}$ pps.