A new time of flight method for simultaneous determination of pulse delay with picosecond accuracy and pulse area (theoretical and computer analysis)

A new time of flight (TOF) method is developed by the solution of an inverse problem. It is capable of determining two parameters simultaneously: the delay to the signal pulse center and the pulse area, proportional to the number of counts (photons). The analysis is based on theoretical and computer models. It shows the opportunity to provide a delay accuracy of the order of 10-1 ps within the range of 10 ns and more (>103 pixels) at arbitrary pulse shape. The method does not require the use of amplitude or temporal discriminating techniques. The near photon counting at strongly overlapping single electron pulses in the photon detector may be realized by this method. It may be applied in any TOF measurement as in nuclear multidetector systems, time-resolved spectroscopy, picosecond ranging etc. ((orig.))