A fast timing calorimetric layer using micro-channel plates in ionisation mode

Future high rate hadron colliders are expected to have hundreds of concurrent proton-proton interactions in the same bunch crossing, deteriorating the energy resolution and identification capabilities of calorimeters. The possibility to distinguish neutral particles coming from different interaction vertices is being pursued as a tool to reduce pile-up contamination in calorimeters, and restore optimal performance. A time of flight resolution of the order of 20 ps will be able to reduce neutral particles pile-up contamination at the calorimeter level by about one order of magnitude, restoring pile-up conditions similar to what is routinely sustained in the current run of the LHC. Micro-channel plates (MCP) can be used in PMT configuration as fast charged particles detector (resolution of better then 30 ps can be achieved with commercial devices). However they are not particularly radiation tolerant, mostly due to the ion feedback on the photocathode. The possibility of using micro-channel plates without a photocathode (i-MCP) has been studied in several test beams. Different MCP geometries are compared with the goal to identify the optimal configuration. Efficiency of more than 70% with a time resolution of better than 40 ps are achieved for single charged particles, leading to an efficiency close to 100% for EM shower after few radiation lengths. This opens the possibility to use i-MCPs as a timing layer in a sampling calorimeter or to use it in a pre-shower device independent from the calorimeter technology. Preliminary results on the radiation hardness of the i-MCP configuration will be also presented.