4D Tracking: Present Status and Perspective

TL;DR

This paper reviews the recent advancements and current status of 4D silicon-based timing detectors, emphasizing the impact of LGAD technology on particle tracking and the ongoing R&D in this rapidly evolving field.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of the development, design innovations, and future perspectives of 4D timing detectors based on silicon sensors, especially LGADs.

Findings

LGAD technology enables large signals with low noise for precise timing.

Silicon-based timing detectors are undergoing rapid R&D with various sensor designs.

The field is expanding with hybrid and monolithic sensors exploring new capabilities.

Abstract

The past ten years have seen the advent of silicon-based precise timing detectors for charged particle tracking. The underlying reason for this evolution is a design innovation: the Low-Gain Avalanche Diode (LGAD). In its simplicity, the LGAD design is an obvious step with momentous consequences: low gain leads to large signals maintaining sensors stability and low noise, allowing sensor segmentation. Albeit introduced for a different reason, to compensate for charge trapping in irradiated silicon sensors, LGAD found fertile ground in the design of silicon-based timing detectors. Spurred by this design innovation, solid-state-based timing detectors for charged particles are going through an intense phase of R&D, and hybrid and monolithic sensors, with or without internal gain, are being explored. This contribution offers a review of this booming field.