Beam energy measurement system

A time-of-flight (TOF) measurement system for measuring energy of a pulsed hadron beam, wherein each pulse of the beam is structured into a series of bunches (B) of charged particles, said bunches being repeated according to a repetition rate of the order of magnitude of radiofrequency, said system comprising

• a first detector (1), a second detector (2) and a third detector (3) arranged along a beam path (10), each of said detectors being configured to detect the passage of a bunch (B) of charged particles and provide an output signal (νPP.1, νPP.2, νPP.3) dependent on phase of the detected bunch (B), wherein the second detector (2) is spaced apart from the first detector (1) by a first distance (L12) and wherein the third detector (3) is spaced apart from the second detector (2) by a second distance (L23), wherein said first distance is set out in such a way as that time of flight (t12) of the bunch (B) from the first detector (1) to the second detector (2) is approximately equal to, or lower than a repetition period (TRFQ) of the bunches (B), and wherein said second distance is set out in such a way as that time of flight (T23) of the bunch (B) from the second detector (2) to the third detector (3) is greater than a multiple of the repetition period (TRFQ) of the bunches (B), and
• processing means (7) configured to
• a) calculate phase shifts (Δϕ12, Δϕ13, Δϕ23) between the output signals (νPP.1, νPP.2, νPP.3) of the detectors (1, 2, 3), and
• b) calculate energy (E) of the pulse based on the calculated phase shifts.