The choice of the optimum gas mixture for high rate wire chambers

In this paper attention is paid to the experimental data on the use of Penning and non-Penning gas mixtures in different wire devices including proportional, drift, microstrip and microgap gas chambers. The properties of some SQS mixtures also are considered. The main conclusions are: the best time, space and energy resolution, and the minimum deposits on the wires are reached with 5–10% of the quencher addition to the principal gas; the gas gain in the MSGC is not large (less than 104); the phenomena may be connected with the design of this device, i.e. the deexcitation of the principal gas occurs on the substratum of the chamber without additional ionization effects.