T. Zeuner

Studies of aging and HV break down problems during development and operation of MSGC and GEM detectors for the inner tracking system of HERA-B

Abstract The results of 5 years of development of the inner tracking system of the HERA-B experiment and first experience from the data taking period of the year 2000 are reported. The system contains 184 chambers, covering a sensitive area of about (20×20) cm 2 each. The detector is based on microstrip gas counters (MSGCs) with diamond-like coated (DLC) glass wafers and gas electron multipliers (GEMs). The main problems in the development phase were gas discharges in intense hadron beams and aging in a high radiation dose environment. The observation of gas discharges which damage the electrode structure of the MSGC led to the addition of the GEM as a first amplification step. Spurious sparking at the GEM cannot be avoided completely. It does not affect the GEM itself but can produce secondary damage of the MSGC if the electric field between the GEM and the MSGC is above a threshold depending on the operation conditions. We observed that aging does not only depend on the dose but also on the spot size of the irradiated area. Ar–DME mixtures had to be abandoned whereas a mixture of 70% Ar and 30% CO 2 showed no serious aging effects up to about 40 mC /cm deposited charge on the anodes. X-ray measurements indicate that the DLC of the MSGC is deteriorated by the gas amplification process. As a consequence, long-term gain variations are expected. The Inner Tracker has successfully participated in the data taking at HERA-B during summer 2000.

Carbon coated gas electron multipliers

Abstract Gas electron multipliers (GEMs) have been overcoated with a high resistivity 1014– 10 15 Ω / □ amorphous carbon layer. The coating avoids charging up of the holes and provides a constant gain immediately after switching on independent of the rate. The gain uniformity across the GEM is improved. Coating opens the possibility to produce thick GEMs of very high gain.

Sparks in MSGCs

Abstract We have measured the spark rate as a function of voltages and geometric parameters and investigated the damage to Au, Al, Cr, W and Rh electrodes. Measurements of the spark signals compare well with simulations. We propose a new device, the Macro Gap Chamber.

Development of a 150 000 channel MSGC tracking system for the experiment HERA-B

The universities of Heidelberg, Siegen and Zurich1 are preparing the inner tracker of the HERA-B experiment at DESY designed to measure CP violation in B meson decays. The system consists of 200 MSGC chambers of sizes up to 30 × 30 cm2 with a total of 150 000 electronic channels. Rates up to 104 s−1 mm−2 have to be handled. The gold electrodes (300 μm pitch) are produced by a lift-off process on an alkali-free glass (300 μm thick). The glass is CVD coated with amorphous carbon with a surface resistivity of 1014ω/□. It provides the required lifetime of 5 years with an integrated charge of 30 mC per cm of the anode length. Gains > 5000 are obtained. The efficiency is greater than 99% with negligible noise rate. Measures to avoid deterioration of the anodes by discharges caused by heavy ionizing particles are discussed. The MSGC detectors are connected to hybrid electronics via Kapton foils. A special bonding machine has been built which allows the adjustment by a video system and the chariots moved by micrometer screws and contains electronically steered glue dispenser and pressure pistons.

AN OPTICAL READOUT FOR A FIBER TRACKER

The performance of 16 and 64 channel photomultipliers coupled to scintillating fibres has been tested. The devices are sensitive to single photoelectrons, show little gain losses for magnetic fields up to 100 Gauss and have moderate optical cross-talk. The maximum channel to channel gain variations reach a factor two for the 16 channel version and a factor of four for the 64 channel PM. The measurements and simulations indicate that the photomultipliers are well suited for the light detection in fibre trackers.