Investigation of fast timing capabilities of silicon sensors for the CMS high granularity calorimeter at HL-LHC

The High Granularity Calorimeter (HGCAL) is the technology choice of the CMS collaboration for the endcap calorimetry upgrade planned to cope with the harsh radiation and unprecedented in-time event pileup projected at the High Luminosity-LHC era. In this context, profiting from fast-timing information with a resolution of a few tens of picoseconds embedded in the calorimeter would represent a unique capability for resolving information from individual collisions at the HL-LHC. This will enhance the reconstruction and physics capabilities of the CMS detector in terms of pileup mitigation and particle identification. The HGCAL is realized as a sampling calorimeter that uses silicon sensors as its active elements. Prototype sensors were tested with high-energy electron beams at the CERN SPS, and at the FNAL FTBF test beam facilities. We present the motivation for this studies including the concept and use of fast-timing in the HGCAL, and the measured intrinsic timing capabilities of silicon sensors for electromagnetic showers and minimum-ionizing particles.