Correlated Energy and Time-of-Flight Measurements of Fission Fragments with Semiconductor Detectors: System Design and Performance

Abstract

A system for the measurement of correlated energies and times‐of‐flight of fission fragments has been developed. This system, adaptable for use with other charged particles as well, includes a fast‐response transformer coupling scheme in which the charge originating in a solid‐state detector passes through the transformer primary to a low noise charge‐sensitive amplifier; the fast timing signal is obtained from the transformer secondary. Noise thereby added to the linear energy signal is negligible. The measured time resolution of the system for particles in a narrow band of energies was $\text{≲0.4}\mathrm{nsec}$ , full‐width at half‐maximum. The design of the system is described, and the detailed results of performance tests, including tests with coincident ²⁵²Cf spontaneous fission fragments and energy‐time correlation measurements for bromine and iodine ions (artificial fission fragments), are given.