Comprehensive study of timing resolution in plastic scintillator detectors with wavelength-shifting fiber and silicon photomultiplier readout

@misc{che2026comprehensive,
  title = {{Comprehensive study of timing resolution in plastic scintillator detectors with wavelength-shifting fiber and silicon photomultiplier readout}},
  author = {Haohui Che and Guang Yang},
  howpublished = {arXiv},
  year = {2026},
  month = oct,
  doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2607.14290},
  eprint = {2607.14290},
  archivePrefix = {arXiv},
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.14290},
}

TY  - UNPB
TI  - Comprehensive study of timing resolution in plastic scintillator detectors with wavelength-shifting fiber and silicon photomultiplier readout
AU  - Haohui Che
AU  - Guang Yang
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/10/29
PB  - arXiv
DO  - 10.48550/arxiv.2607.14290
UR  - https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.14290
AB  - We present a comprehensive study of the timing resolution achievable in plastic scintillator detectors read out through wavelength-shifting (WLS) fibers coupled to silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs), combining a semi-analytical framework, toy Monte Carlo validation, and full Geant4 optical photon simulation. The analytical model traces the complete photon detection chain: scintillation emission, WLS fiber re-emission, optical transit time dispersion, SiPM single-photon time resolution, and electronics quantization. It expresses the timing resolution sigt as a function of the detected photoelectron yield Npe, scintillator decay constants (taur, taud), WLS re-emission time (tauwls), fiber numerical aperture, detector geometry, and readout electronics parameters. The analytical predictions are validated at two levels. First, toy Monte Carlo simulations (2× 10^5 events per parameter point across 80 grid points spanning 8 fiber types and Npe from 5 to 200) achieve analytical-to-MC agreement of \add{1.0000 ± 0.0018}. Second, full Geant4 optical photon simulations track the entire scintillation, wavelength-shifting, and fiber transport chain in realistic detector geometries, confirming the analytical timing predictions\add{ to within 10--20\% for Npe ≳ 10} and providing first-principles photoelectron yield calibration. A comprehensive parameter scan covering 7 scintillator materials, 8 WLS fiber types, 5 SiPM models, 5 electronics configurations, 3 readout topologies, and 3 boundary conditions produces quantitative design maps and lookup tables for detector optimization.
ER  -