A study of wire chambers with highly segmented cathode pad readout for high multiplicity charged particle detection

Investigations of interpolating cathode pad readout have been carried out for high-multiplicity, two-dimensional position-sensitive detection of minimum ionizing particles and heavy ions. A detector configuration representing only 0.6% of a radiation length and covering an area of 26 cm by 16 cm, with over 1000 readout channels, has been developed. In a prototype chamber using this technique, a resolution of less than 1090 μm (RMS) for 5.4-keV X-rays and differential nonlinearity of ±6% have been achieved. The technique has also been demonstrated for detectors of much larger area. Pad chamber and chevron pad types of detector have been built and used in the E814 heavy ion experiment at the Brookhaven National Laboratory Alternating Gradient Synchrotron. It is concluded that their ability to handle high particle multiplicity and provide unambiguous two-dimensional position information (1-3% readout node spacing along the wire direction) affords a very powerful detector technique