Time-of-flight heavy-ion spectrometer using detectors with loose dielectric emitters

A time-of-flight spectrometer based on two detectors with loose dielectric emitters is described. The spectrometer was tested on the U-300 cyclotron by measuring the energy and energy spread of a heavy-ion beam. The time resolution of the spectrometer was 0.25 nsec and the dead time for /sup 132/Xe ions with an energy of 1 MeV/nucleon was 1.5microsec. The time-of-flight method of particle identification of nuclear reactions is based on simultaneous measurement of the velocity and energy of a particle. The promise of this method, which allows with accuracy to one mass unit determination of the mass of reaction products regardless of their charge composition, has stimulated the creation of new types of high-speed detectors using microchannel wafers.