Streamer studies in Resistive Plate Chambers

TL;DR

This paper investigates eco-friendly gas mixtures and structural parameters for streamer operation in Resistive Plate Chambers, focusing on replacing R134a with CF4, studying gas gap effects, and timing of streamer formation.

Contribution

It introduces new insights into eco-friendly gas mixtures, especially CF4, and examines the impact of gas gap thickness and streamer timing in RPCs.

Findings

CF4 can replace R134a in streamer mode

Thinner gas gaps affect discharge quenching

Preliminary streamer timing results obtained

Abstract

The present paper is meant as an update of the presentation given in a previous Resistive Plate Chamber (RPC) workshop, aimed at finding an eco-friendly gas mixture for streamer operation of RPCs. Indeed the streamer working regime is still suitable for building large RPC systems dedicated to low rate applications, such as cosmic ray and neutrino physics. In addition to other studies about gas mixtures for streamer mode operation, in this paper the replacement of R134a with CF4, a gas widely used in other gaseous detectors, has been investigated. The effect of the gas gap thickness on the discharge quenching has also been studied; this is an important check because thin gas gaps of 1 mm, one half of the typical used value, have been introduced for high rate applications. Finally preliminar results about the streamer formation timing are also reported.