MPGD with a 3D-printed Thick-GEM as sole gain element

TL;DR

This paper introduces the first micropattern gaseous detector using a 3D-printed Thick-GEM as the sole gain element, demonstrating stable operation and significant gas gain without additional amplification components.

Contribution

It presents a novel 3D-printed Thick-GEM detector design that achieves high gas gain as the only gain element, with detailed analysis of its performance and stability.

Findings

Achieves gas gain above 10^4 in stable operation

Gas gain depends strongly on rim size around holes

Gain stabilizes after initial rise and slow decline

Abstract

We present the first micropattern gaseous detector that employs a small 3D-printed Thick-GEM as its sole gain element. The detector can achieve sufficient gas gain for regular operation without the need for pre-amplification by additional gain elements. We describe the design, quality control, assembly, and test of this detector. The 10 cm $\times$ 10 cm active area of the Thick-GEM features three separate sectors with different sizes of the clearance rim annuli (0.1 mm, 0.15 mm, 0.2 mm) around the 0.7 mm diameter holes. The gas gain is found to depend strongly on the rim size. When operated in Ar/CO$_2$ 70:30 gas, the sector with 0.15 mm annulus rims reaches a gain above 10$^4$ while operating in a stable manner with an acceptably low discharge rate. The gain reach under stable operation is found to be considerably lower in the other two sectors. The gas gain shows a characteristic time-dependence as it rises quickly in the first hour of operation and then drops slowly over the next 24 hours and subsequently stabilizes.