PICOSEC: Charged particle timing at sub-25 picosecond precision with a Micromegas based detector

TL;DR

PICOSEC is a novel Micromegas-based detector achieving sub-25 ps timing resolution for charged particles, promising to reduce background noise at the HL-LHC by providing precise timing measurements.

Contribution

This paper introduces PICOSEC, a new detector concept combining Micromegas and Cherenkov radiator to achieve unprecedented timing precision for high-rate particle detection.

Findings

Achieved 24 ps time resolution for 150 GeV muons

Achieved 76 ps time resolution for single photoelectrons

Demonstrated potential for background reduction at HL-LHC

Abstract

The prospect of pileup induced backgrounds at the High Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) has stimulated intense interest in developing technologies for charged particle detection with accurate timing at high rates. The required accuracy follows directly from the nominal interaction distribution within a bunch crossing ($\sigma_z\sim5$ cm, $\sigma_t\sim170$ ps). A time resolution of the order of 20-30 ps would lead to significant reduction of these backgrounds. With this goal, we present a new detection concept called PICOSEC, which is based on a "two-stage" Micromegas detector coupled to a Cherenkov radiator and equipped with a photocathode. First results obtained with this new detector yield a time resolution of 24 ps for 150 GeV muons, and 76 ps for single photoelectrons.