Large-area scintillating-fiber time-of-flight/hodoscope detectors for particle astrophysics experiments

A new generation of detectors of ultra-heavy (UH) cosmic rays is being built which require the use of large-area, light-weight detector elements. In this paper, we present the design and operation of a new type of scintillating optical fiber detector, which can serve as both a time-of-Eight (TOF) detector and coded hodoscope (i.e. trajectory detector). We demonstrate that this type of detector can make TOF measurements with a time resolution of 48 ps. We also present results of position measurements from a large area TOF/hodoscope that was flown on a high-altitude balloon Eight in August, 1995. Finally, we discuss areas of modification and improvements that can be made to these detectors to enable them to be more useful for making UH cosmic ray measurements. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.