The detector system of the BigSol spectrometer at Texas A & M

The detector system used at the first focus of the BigSol superconducting solenoid beam line at the Texas A & M superconducting cyclotron is presented. The system is composed of a position sensitive PPAC followed by an ionization chamber (IC) with a YAP(Ce) array in its back plane. The position sensitivity of the PPAC as well the energy resolution of the IC is investigated as a function of the counting rate. Pulse height, pulse height resolution and time resolution of the YAP(Ce) crystals are studied for a variety of heavy ion beams ranging from Ne-20 to Au-197 at energies from 15 AMeV to 40 AMeV. The pulse shape discrimination method using a Flash ADC is also explored, in order to identify decay products (alpha particles and electron/gamma) from the fragments implanted in the scintillator.