The SPD Beam-Beam Counter Scintillation Detector Prototype Tests with FERS-5200 Front-End Readout System

The Spin Physics Detector is a collider experiment at NICA designed to study the spin structure of the proton and deuteron and other spin-related phenomena using polarized beams. The collision energy is up to 27 GeV and the luminosity is up to 1032 cm–2 s–1 in pp mode. Two scintillator-based detectors, Beam-Beam Counters (BBC), will be installed upstream and downstream the interaction point and will serve as a tool for beam diagnostics including local polarimetry. The BBCs will be designed as high granularity scintillation detectors. In this paper we present the tests of a BBC prototype based on the tiles with the green wavelength shifter and silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) readout. The prototype was tested with 1 × 1 mm2 and 3 × 3 mm2 SensL SiPM using CAEN FERS-5200 front-end readout system. Amplitude and time response to cosmic rays was compared for different tile configurations.