Progress in timing Resistive Plate Chambers

• Timing RPCs are Resistive Plate Chambers made with glass and metal electrodes separated by precision spacers. Typical gas gaps are a few hundred micrometers wide. Such counters were introduced in 1999 and have since reached timing accuracies below 50 ps sigma with efficiencies above 99% for MIPs. Applications in high-energy physics have already taken place with several more under study. Some recent developments include the extension of the counting rate capability by over one order of magnitude, to 25 kHz/cm(2), with time resolutions below 100 ps sigma. A prototype RPC-based Positron Emission Tomograph yielded a reconstructed point-source resolution of 0.6 mm FWHM and a modified timing RPC design, featuring 50 mum pitch anode strips, allowed to reach extremely good position resolution for hard X-rays in digital readout mode. An analytically solvable model has allowed us to clarify the basic factors influencing the time resolution.

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NATURVETENSKAP  -- Fysik (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Physical Sciences (hsv//eng)

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RPCs

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