The time-of-flight system for CLAS

The time-of-flight system for the CEBAF Large Acceptance Spectrometer (CLAS) at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility is described. The system, covering an area of 206-square-meters, is composed of scintillation counters 5.08 cm thick, 15 and 22 cm wide, and lengths which vary from 32 cm at the most forward angle to 450 cm at larger angles. All of the components of the system have been designed to optimize the time resolution. Event timing, achieved by leading-edge discrimination with time-walk correction, has been measured with cosmic rays, a laser pulser, and known particle interactions. The intrinsic time resolution varies from about 80 ps for the short counters to 160 ps for the longer counters. Reconstruction of interacting particles during the first period of operation yields an average time resolution for electrons of 163 ps.