Speaker
Description
The TORCH time-of-flight detector, designed to provide particle identification over the momentum range 2–10 GeV/c over large areas, is under development. The detector exploits prompt Cherenkov light produced by charge particles traversing a 10 mm thick quartz plate. The photons propagate via total-internal reflection and are focussed onto a detector plane comprising position-sensitive micro-channel plate (MCP) detectors. The goal is to achieve a resolution of 15 ps per particle by combining the information from around 30 detected photons, given a single-photon resolution of 70 ps. The MCP-PMT detectors have been developed with a commercial partner (Photek), leading to the delivery of a square 53 by 53mm tube, with 8 by 128 pixels equivalent, capable of withstanding a large integrated charge on its anode (5 Ccm^{-2}). A small-scale demonstrator of TORCH has been verified in beam tests at the CERN PS with custom readout electronics and a data-driven calibration. Preliminary results indicate a single photon-resolution better than 100 ps can achieved. Progress towards a larger-scale system with a 10 MCP-PMTs will be presented.
