PICOSEC Micromegas gaseous detectors for precise timing and developments towards applicable detector

The PICOSEC Micromegas project aims to develop a scalable gaseous detector capable of achieving time resolutions of O(10) ps for future high-energy physics experiments.
 In this work, signal analysis techniques and results from beam tests of different PICOSEC prototypes, including single-channel devices with various photocathode materials (CsI, Ti, and $B_{4}C$) and a 100-channel prototype based on a novel double-layer DLC resistive Micromegas design are presented.
Test beam results demonstrate that thinner photocathodes systematically improve time resolution, with titanium emerging as a promising compromise between performance and robustness. For the multi-pad prototype, a reconstruction algorithm based on amplitude-weighted averaging yielded spatial resolutions of 2.9 mm (x) and 2.5 mm (y) over 10 mm x 10 mm pads, while different strategies for combining timing information across pads were compared. Comparable results were obtained using a time-resolution-weighted and a charge-weighted approach.
These studies confirm the potential of PICOSEC Micromegas detectors to combine excellent timing, robustness, and scalability, thereby paving the way toward their application in future high-energy physics experiments.