Development of large area diamond detectors for time-of-flight measurements of relativistic heavy ions for the super-FRS

Time-of-flight (ToF) performances of large area diamond detectors based on polycrystalline samples of dimensions 20 mm x 20 mm and thickness of 0.3 mm are presented. The devices that feature segmented Cr/Au electrodes in a sandwich configuration were irradiated with a heavy ions Au-197 beam of 1 GeV u(-1) showing, when mounted with a separation distance of 2 cm, a ToF resolution (sigma) over bar of 37.5 ps averaged on 16 strip pairs. When ToF measurements were performed over a particle path of 30 m, a resolution sigma of 45 ps was achieved. The detectors were mounted on high-vacuum compatible printed circuit boards (PCBs) with integrated processing electronics. This is the first time that ToF measurements have been performed using integrated electronics with such a large separation distance between the diamond detectors.