A low-pressure gas detector for heavy-ion tracking and particle identification

A low-pressure gas tracker for heavy ions is described. It is based on a drift chamber with four series of multiplying wires for energy loss measurement and underlying strips for position and angle determination. Results of tests with an α-source and with low-energy heavy-ion beams are presented. They indicate the suitability of such a detector in a wide range of experiments with heavy ions where a low energy threshold, a large solid angle, together with a precise measurement of ion trajectories and identification is needed. In particular, the application as a prototype of the focal plane detector for the large-acceptance spectrometer MAGNEX is discussed.