A new Time-of-flight detector for the R$$^3$$B setup

Abstract We present the design, prototype developments and test results of the new time-of-flight detector (ToFD) which is part of the R $$^3$$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:msup> <mml:mrow/> <mml:mn>3</mml:mn> </mml:msup> </mml:math> B experimental setup at GSI and FAIR, Darmstadt, Germany. The ToFD detector is able to detect heavy-ion residues of all charges at relativistic energies with a relative energy precision $$\sigma _{\varDelta E}/{\varDelta E}$$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:mrow> <mml:msub> <mml:mi>σ</mml:mi> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>Δ</mml:mi> <mml:mi>E</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> </mml:msub> <mml:mo>/</mml:mo> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>Δ</mml:mi> <mml:mi>E</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> of up to 1% and a time precision of up to 14 ps (sigma). Together with an elaborate particle-tracking system, the full identification of relativistic ions from hydrogen up to uranium in mass and nuclear charge is possible.