Accuracy limits in the measurement of time intervals defined by scintillation counter pulses

Accuracy limits of the time of occurrence of an event detected by a scintillation counter are investigated. Two methods « non linear » and « linear » for extracting time information from the output current pulse of the photomultiplier are compared taking into account statistics of photoelectron emission, transit time and multiplication spread in the phototube and finite width of the response of the phototube to one photoelectron. Resolution obtained by the « non linear » method is better, but linear method dispenses from an amplitude selection of pulses.