The ΔE-TOF detector of the FOOT experiment: Experimental tests and Monte Carlo simulations

The FOOT experiment aims at identifying the fragments produced in the human body during hadrontherapy and at measuring their cross sections. The apparatus is composed of several detectors which allow a complete reconstruction of the tracks of the fragments. In particular, the Delta E-TOF detector measures the energy released in a thin plastic scintillator and the time of flight of the fragments. In this work, we report the energy and time resolution of a Delta E-TOF detector prototype with proton and carbon irradiations, and we compare the results with a Monte Carlo simulation of the optical transport in the detector. With carbon ions, we measured time resolutions of similar to 50 ps and energy resolutions of similar to 6%. The Monte Carlo simulation was able to model the dependence of the number of detected photons on the proton interaction position.