Time Resolution of BC422 Plastic Scintillator Read Out by a SiPM

Plastic scintillators are widely used in particle detectors when precise timing information is required. As a basis for comparing different detectors, we use such a characteristic as the time resolution per 1 MeV detected energy, i.e., the expected time resolution assuming the deposited energy in the scintillator is equal to 1 MeV, and all the scintillation light is collected to the photosensor. In this work, we measure this parameter with BC422 plastic scintillator read out by different silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs). The best obtained value is about 6 ps, which is almost a factor of 3 better compared to our earlier result from 2012. Such an improvement represents the progress in the development of SiPMs made over these years and, driven by this progress, improved knowledge and know-how on such detectors.