# The Plastic Scintillator Detector at DAMPE

## TL;DR

The Plastic Scintillator Detector (PSD) on DAMPE is a high-efficiency, charge-measuring instrument crucial for cosmic ray and dark matter research, with detailed design, assembly, testing, and ground performance analysis.

## Contribution

This paper details the design, assembly, qualification, and ground performance of the PSD, a key component of DAMPE for particle charge measurement.

## Key findings

- High charge identification efficiency (up to 0.9999 for Z=1)
- Successful ground performance tests confirming detector capabilities
- Effective separation of photons and electrons

## Abstract

he DArk Matter Particle Explorer (DAMPE) is a general purposed satellite-borne high energy $\gamma-$ray and cosmic ray detector, and among the scientific objectives of DAMPE are the searches for the origin of cosmic rays and an understanding of Dark Matter particles. As one of the four detectors in DAMPE, the Plastic Scintillator Detector (PSD) plays an important role in the particle charge measurement and the photons/electrons separation. The PSD has 82 modules, each consists of a long organic plastic scintillator bar and two PMTs at both ends for readout, in two layers and covers an overall active area larger than 82 cm $\times$ 82 cm. It can identify the charge states for relativistic ions from H to Fe, and the detector efficiency for Z=1 particles can reach 0.9999. The PSD has been successfully launched with DAMPE on Dec. 17, 2015. In this paper, the design, the assembly, the qualification tests of the PSD and some of the performance measured on the ground have been described in detail.