PICOSEC Micromegas Gaseous Detector for Precise Timing in High-Rate Environment

As experiments advance toward higher luminosities and more demanding physics, precise timing detectors become increasingly essential. The PICOSEC Micromegas (MM), a novel gaseous detector concept, offers a timing resolution in the order of tens of picoseconds, significantly improving over traditional Micromegas detectors. This study evaluates the performance of various PICOSEC MM configurations, including single-pad detectors with different mesh types, medium granularity pads, and double Diamond-Like Carbon (DLC) MM. The gain, spatial resolution, and time resolution were measured in laboratory tests with an Ultraviolet (UV) LED and during a test beam campaign at CERN-SPS-H4. Results indicate that the standard mesh provides the best gain and time resolution. In contrast, the electroformed and thin woven meshes exhibited reduced field uniformity and transparency, with the latter being confirmated by simulations. Medium granularity pads achieved a spatial resolution of 1.8 mm and a time resolution of $\sim$ 43 ps. Lastly, the double DLC MM amplitude uniformity was measured, resulting in a mean amplitude of about 15 mV and a coefficient of variation of 8%.