A high-resolution quartz Čerenkov detector for relativistic heavy ion beams

A quartz-based Čerenkov beam detector with photomultiplier readout was constructed for relativistic heavy ion experiments. It was successfuly used to detect interactions of 2, 4 and 10.4 AGeV kinetic energy gold projectiles in Au targets. The charge resolution of 1.4e for gold ions permits its use to form a minimum-bias first-level interaction trigger. Gain and charge resolution were very stable for a two month period, during which a total number of ∼1011 gold ions passed through the detector.