Time-of-flight detector for WA98 CERN experiment

The time-of-flight detector (TOF ≠) used in WA98 CERN experiment is described. The goal of the experiment is to study Pb-Pb collisions at 160xA GeV beam of SPS for investigation of highly excited compressed nuclear matter. The MSAC tracking system is backed by TOF wall in order to allow particle identification, i.e., π, K, p separation in the momentum range 1.0 - 5.0 GeV/c. The TOF wall consists of 480 plastic scintillators. The size of each scintillator is 480x32x24 mm3. The PMTs are fixed at both ends of scintillators. Full size of TOF wall is 4x2 m2. The time resolution is σ = 120 ps. Both time and amplitude of signals of scintillators are measured. There are described the design of the TOF wall, the laser control system, the algorithm of the calibration and finding of time corrections. There are presented the examples of particle identification taken in experiments of Pb-Pb interactions in 1995, 1996