Properties of GEMs and the GEM-MGC combination [gas electron multipliers]

Author

Hollander, R.W. ; van den Berg, F.D. ; van Eijk, C.W.E. ; van Vuure, T.L.

Author_Institution

Radiat. Technol. Group, Delft Univ. of Technol., Netherlands

Volume

2

fYear

1999

fDate

1999

Firstpage

597

Abstract

Gas electron multipliers, can be used as charge (pre) amplifiers as well as light producing imaging devices. We have examined GEMs as charge amplifiers in several gas mixtures, including Ar-DME, Xe-DME, Xe-CO₂ as well as in pure argon and xenon. The operation of a single GEM, cascaded GEMs and a combination of a GEM and a micro gap chamber (MGC) have been studied using ~6 keV X-rays. The collected charge cloud in the gas mixtures is limited to ~10⁷ electrons using two GEMs in tandem mode with a pad read out, and 2.7·10⁷ electrons using a MGC as read out. These values correspond with a gain of ~10⁵ for 5.9 keV X-rays from ⁵⁵Fe. The stability of the gain in gas mixtures is better than 10% except for Ar/DME 60/40, where the stability depends on the gain. In pure argon and xenon the maximal gain is respectively 4000 and 7000, using two GEMs in tandem mode. The field strength distribution for optimal operation of a GEM is studied in detail

Keywords

X-ray detection; amplification; electron multipliers; position sensitive particle detectors; 5.9 keV; 6 keV; Ar; Ar-DME mixture; X-rays; Xe; Xe-CO₂; Xe-DME mixture; charge cloud; field strength distribution; gain; gas electron multipliers; micro gap chamber; Anodes; Argon; Cathodes; Copper; Electron multipliers; Lenses; Preamplifiers; Strips; X-rays; Xenon;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Nuclear Science Symposium, 1999. Conference Record. 1999 IEEE

Conference_Location

Seattle, WA

ISSN

1082-3654

Print_ISBN

0-7803-5696-9

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/NSSMIC.1999.845742

Filename

845742