A position-sensitive fiber-structured scintillator for sampling calorimeters and muon trackers

Abstract We present the design and performance (i.e., position and time resolution) of a $${25 \times 25}\,{\hbox {cm}^2}$$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mn>25</mml:mn> <mml:mo>×</mml:mo> <mml:mn>25</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> <mml:mspace/> <mml:msup> <mml:mtext>cm</mml:mtext> <mml:mn>2</mml:mn> </mml:msup> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> extruded scintillator plate with embedded wavelength-shifting fibers that are read out by silicon photomultipliers. The detector can serve as the main building block of sampling calorimeters and muon trackers for future particle and nuclear-physics experiments. We show that our prototype can record the position of a particle interaction point in two dimensions with a resolution of better than 6 mm and determine the time of the interaction with a precision of better than 800 ps. We also explore its limitations and identify approaches for improving the performance of future detectors based on the same design principle.