A high-resolution detectorbased on liquid-core scintillating fibres withreadoutviaan electron-bombardedcharge-coupleddevice

(Received9 August 1993)This paperis a presentation of results from tests in a 5 GeV/chadron beam of detectors based on liquid-core scintillatingfibres, each fibre consisting of a glass capillary filled with organic liquid scintillation Fibre readout was performed via anElectron-Bombarded Charge-CoupledDevice(EBCCD)imagetube, a novel instrument that combines the functionsof a high-gain,gated imageintensifier and a Charge-Coupled Device. Using1-methylnaphthalene doped with 3 g/Iof R45 as liquid scintillator,the attenuation lengths obtained forlight propagation over distances greater than 16cmwere1 .5 min fibresof 20 wmcore and1.0min fibres of 16 Wmcore. Forparticlesthatcrossed the fibres of20 pmcore at distances of -1 .8 cmand -95 cmfromthefibres'readout ends, therecorded hit densitieswere5.3 mm-1 and2.5 mm-1 respectively. UsingI-methylnaphthalenedopedwith 3.6 g/lof R39as liquid scintillator andfibres of 75 pincore, the hit densityobtained for particles that crossed the fibres at a distance of1.8 cmfrom their readout ends was 8.5 mm-1. With a specially designed bundle of tapered fibres, having core diametersthatsmoothly increase from 16 wmto 75 wm,aspatial precision of 6 Wmwasmeasured.1. IntroductionIn the past fewyearsmuchprogress hasbeenmadein developing high-resolution detectors based on co-herent bundles of liquid-core scintillating fibres [1-8].Thefibres usedhavediametersof 15-200 wmand areformedfrom thin-walled, narrow-bore, glass filled withorganic liquid scintillator: capillary walls and liquidscintillator constitute a fibre's cladding and core re-spectively. Track imagesproduced at the endface of abundleof scintillating fibres traversedby ionizing parti-cles maybe recordedvia anoptoelectronic system.Scintillating-fibre devicesshowpromiseforhigh-en-ergy physics applications [1,2,8-14] - both in currentexperiments and at proposed future high-luminosityfacilities suchas theLargeHadronCollider (LHC)andthe Superconducting Super Collider (SSC) - andformedical imaging [15]. After overcoming the technicalcomplications involved in filling capillaries with liquid,0168-9002/94/$07.00 ©1994 -Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reservedSSDI0168-9002(93)E0870-X