Absolute electron transfer efficiency of GEM

We report on the absolute single-electron transfer efficiency of a Gas Electron Multiplier (GEM). It is shown that the electron transfer and thus the detection efficiency, depend not only on the GEM geometry and gain but mostly on the electric field and electron diffusion in the gas volume preceding the GEM. We have demonstrated that conditions can be found, including pre-amplification of the single electrons in the gap preceding the GEM, in which full detection efficiency is obtained. The experimental electron transfer efficiency results are confirmed by Monte Carlo simulations.