Analysis of digital timing methods with BaF2 scintillators

Various digital methods were examined for determining the relative arrival times of pulses from to 5.08×2.54 cm BaF2 scintillators. In this study, pulses from the photomultiplier tubes were digitized by a 1 Gs/s analog-to-digital converter and post processed with multiple techniques. These techniques include: (1) leading edge discrimination, (2) moment-analysis, (3) constant-fraction discrimination, (4) digital constant-fraction discrimination, (5) triangular pulse shaping with a leading edge linear regression, and (6) pulse-shape fitting. Average timing resolutions of 456±8 ps were obtained with constant-fraction discrimination, which is slightly higher than the analog average resolution of 419±7 ps. This study explores the application of these digital techniques for pulse-timing applications and their potential advantages and limitations.