Read-out of scintillating fibres using a weak cross-talk position-sensitive photomultiplier

Fast and precise readout of scintillating fibres (SciFi) has a great potential for fast tracking and triggering at high-luminosity particle physics experiments. In the framework of the RD-17 experiment at CERN (FAROS) significant milestones in the development of SciFi detectors using position-sensitive photomultipliers have been achieved. Results obtained with a weak cross-talk multi-anode photomultiplier, Philips XP1724, and a parallel readout of the anodes are reported. With 0.5 mm diameter fibres a spatial resolution of about 125 mu m and a detection efficiency in excess of 95% have been obtained. The time dispersion of signals from individual photomultiplier channels has been estimated to be about 1 ns. The possibility of digitising the track position in real time by a peak-sensing circuit is studied for the first time. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.