Development of high-rate capable and ultra-low mass Resistive Plate Chamber with Diamond-Like Carbon

TL;DR

This paper presents the development and testing of a novel resistive plate chamber with diamond-like carbon electrodes, designed for high-rate, low-mass particle detection in muon beam experiments, demonstrating promising performance at high rates.

Contribution

It introduces a new RPC design using thin-film DLC electrodes, achieving high-rate capability and ultra-low mass suitable for muon detection in the MEG II experiment.

Findings

Achieved detection efficiency and timing resolution at rates up to 1 MHz/cm².

Demonstrated ultra-low material budget of 0.1% X₀ in a prototype.

Projected full-scale detector performance for MEG II.

Abstract

A new type of resistive plate chamber (RPC) is under development using thin-film resistive electrodes based on diamond-like carbon (DLC). Planned to be put on the path of high-intensity low-momentum muon beam of the MEG II experiment, this detector is required to be high-rate capable and ultra-low mass. Using a prototype detector with 2 cm $\times$ 2 cm size and 0.1 % $X_0$ material budget, performance studies were conducted for MIP detection efficiency, timing resolution and high rate capability in low-momentum muon beam. In this paper, the measured performance is presented including the result with low-momentum muon beam at rate up to 1 $\mathrm{MHz/cm^2}$. Based on the result, the expected performance of the full-scale detector in the MEG~II experiment is also discussed.