Evaluation of Timing Scintillator Geometry

Plastic timing scintillators are used to measure the time of flight of particles travelling between two defined locations in experiments at rare isotope facilities, such as the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams at Michigan State University. Using a Geant4 simulation that includes the tracking of optical photons generated from incident protons, the effects of the geometry of the scintillator and light guide on the time-of-flight distribution are investigated. In a first step, basic parameters such as light guide thickness and the geometry of how the scintillator is attached to the light guide are varied. The output of the simulation is analyzed regarding the light collection efficiency and the arrival time of the optical photons at the photo detector. A review of this study will be presented and discussed.