Timing properties of two types of scintillation counters have been studied in 5GeV/c hadron beam of the IHEP (Protvino) accelerator. The counters are prototypes of hodoscope elements that will be used in experiments for particle identification and fast timing of events. Scintillator cross-sections are 1.25×6.0 and 2.5×2.5cm2 and their length is 2m. The dependence of the time resolution on the particle coordinate along the counters and on the beam intensity is presented.

Timing characteristics of two time-of-flight scintillation counters were studied using particle beams at the IHEP (Protvino) accelerator. The bars were 2m long and had a cross-section of 2.5×6.0cm2. Each bar was viewed from both ends by XP2020 photomultipliers. A time resolution better than 40ps was achieved.

The proposed Hall D detector at Jefferson Lab will have a time-of-flight detector composed of long and narrow scintillator bars. We have evaluated the time resolution of two bar prototypes in particle beams at the Institute for High Energy Physics in Protvino, Russia. The bars are 2.0m long and have square cross-sections of size 2.5 and 5.0cm2. In this paper, we present results on how the time resolution of each of these bars depends on the entry position of the beam into the scintillator, on the material used for scintillator wrapping and on the phototube used for the readout.