Development of thin-gap GEM-μRWELL hybrid detectors

Abstract

Micro Pattern Gaseous Detectors (MPGDs) are used for tracking in High Energy Physics and Nuclear Physics because of their large area, excellent spatial resolution capabilities and low cost. However, for high energy charged particles impacting at a large angle with respect to the axis perpendicular to detector plane, the spatial resolution degrades significantly because of the long trail of ionization charges produced in clusters all along the track in the drift region of the detector. The long ionization charge trail results in registering hits from large number of strips in the readout plane which makes it challenging to precisely reconstruct the particle’s position using simple center of gravity algorithm. As a result, the larger the drift gap, the more severe the deterioration of spatial resolution for inclined tracks. For the same reason, the position resolution is also severely degraded in a large magnetic field, where the Lorentz E $\times$ B effect causes the ionization charges to follow a curved and longer path in the detector gas volume. In this paper, we report on the development of thin-gap MPGDs as a way to maintain excellent spatial resolution capabilities of MPGD detectors over a wide angular range of incoming particles. In a thin-gap MPGD, the thickness of the gas volume in the drift region is reduced from typically $\sim$3 mm to $\sim$1 mm or less. We present preliminary test beam results demonstrating the improvement in spatial resolution from $\sim$400 $\mu$m with a standard 3 mm gap $\mu$RWELL prototype to $\sim$140 $\mu$m with a double amplification GEM-$\mu$RWELL thin-gap hybrid detector. We also discuss the impact of a thin-gap drift volume on other aspects of the performance of MPGD technologies such as the efficiency and detector stability.