A GEANT4 study on the time resolution of a fast plastic scintillator read out by a G-APD

The time resolution of a fast scintillation counter, consisting of a plastic scintillator read out by a Geiger-mode Avalanche Photodiode, is studied over a wide range of the number of detected photons (primary photoelectrons) using the GEANT4 simulation toolkit. Different timing definitions such as first photon detection, leading edge and constant fraction discrimination are considered. In the latter case the predictions are compared with the existing experimental data. We also show that due to the finite scintillation rise time, finite scintillator dimensions and also due to the finite single photon time resolution in G-APD cells, the time resolution for the first detected photon in real detectors substantially deviates from the σ∼1/Npheσ∼1/Nphe dependence, theoretically predicted for a scintillator with zero rise time.