A new detector array for charged particle spectroscopy

A compact and highly segmented detector array consisting of 44 gas–silicon–caesium iodide, position sensitive, particle identification detector telescopes and up to 10 position-sensitive, silicon strip detectors has been constructed for the study of light-ion–heavy-ion reactions including cluster break–up in the energy range 5–15MeV/nucleon. The detectors are housed in a purpose built vacuum chamber. The telescopes are placed in fixed positions, covering the forward hemisphere from 3 to 30° in the laboratory with the target placed at 535mm from the front of the telescopes or 6–52° with the target placed at 215mm. The strip detectors are placed in any of 30 fixed positions in the forward hemisphere. For 85MeV 12C ions the telescope energy resolution (gas plus silicon) is 345keV with an angular resolution of 0.03°. Using the gas–silicon section ions with Z up to 21 can be identified. For ions that pass through the silicon isotopic identification is achieved using the silicon–CsI combination. The strip detector energy resolution is 200keV, with an angular resolution of 0.1°.