Temperature Dependence of the Time Resolution in a SiPM-Readout Plastic Scintillator for Cosmic-Ray Applications

2025/11/13 by Castillo, José Reyes, Salazar, Saúl Aguilar, Coral, Diego Mauricio Gomez
#FOS: Physical sciences #Instrumentation and Detectors (physics.ins-det)

paper · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2511.10041

Abstract

Balloon- and space-borne cosmic-ray experiments employ plastic scintillators read out by silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) to achieve picosecond-level time resolutions for triggering and particle identification. The performance of these systems can be affected by temperature variations encountered in flight. In this work, a time-of-flight (TOF) prototype consisting of a BC418 plastic scintillator bar coupled to Onsemi MICROFC-30050 SiPMs was constructed and tested under a controlled thermal environment between -20 and 20^∘C. Electrons from a ⁹⁰Sr source were used as a beam, and a dedicated differential preamplifier and coincidence triggering were implemented to study the detector response. A minimum time resolution of 160ps was achieved at an overvoltage of 3V, remaining stable across the tested temperature range and uniform along the scintillator bar.

Citations

• GAPS contributions to the 38th International Cosmic Ray Conference (Nagoya 2023)
• The GAPS Experiment to Search for Dark Matter using Low-energy\n Antimatter
• The AMS Time of Flight System

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• Temperature-Dependent Calibration Procedures for the Silicon Photomultiplier Readout of the Cosmic Ray Veto Detector for the Mu2e Experiment
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• Development of a SiPM-based readout-module for the characterization of various scintillator materials
• Tests of a High Resolution Time of Flight System Based on Long and Narrow Scintillator