Reduction of ion back flow using a quadruple GEM detector with various gas mixtures

TL;DR

This paper investigates how to reduce ion backflow in quadruple GEM detectors by optimizing voltages and gas mixtures, aiming to improve tracking performance in gaseous detectors.

Contribution

It presents new strategies for minimizing ion backflow through voltage optimization in quadruple GEM detectors, enhancing detector performance.

Findings

Optimized voltage settings reduce ion backflow effectively.

Gas mixture variations impact ion backflow and energy resolution.

Strategies improve detector stability and accuracy.

Abstract

In gaseous tracking detectors with a large gaseous volume multiple layers of Gas Electron Multipliers (GEM) can be used to block positive ions from flowing back into the active volume, which is detrimental to the tracking performance. We report on studies of effective gain, ion backflow (IBF), and energy resolution in quadruple GEM detectors, and on strategies for minimizing IBF by optimizing the operating voltages of the individual GEM layers and the potential differences between different layers.