Studies of timing properties for a TOF counter at an external target facility

Timing and amplitude properties of a prototype scintillator TOF counter at an external target facility are studied with a cosmic rays test. The dependence of signal pulse height and time resolution on the coordinate along the scintillator TOF counter is investigated with two different discriminators. A time resolution of 165 ps can be achieved at the center of the counter with a constant fraction discriminator. Time resolution better than 150 ps is obtained at the center with a leading edge discriminator after time walk correction is applied for off-line analysis.