DEVELOPMENT OF A GASEOUS PHOTON DETECTOR FOR CHERENKOV IMAGING APPLICATIONS

by Elena Rocco

Thursday 6 May 2010, 09:15 → 11:00 Europe/Berlin

E18 Seminar room

A dedicated R&D activity aiming at a novel micro pattern gaseous photon detector based on the THick Gas Electron Multiplier (THGEM) will be presented. The goal application is the detection of single photon in Ring Imaging CHerenkov (RICH) counters. The THGEM principle is derived from Gas Electron Multiplier (GEM) one, even if the material, the production technology and the size scale is different: a THGEM is a Printed Circuit Board (PCB) metal coated on both sides with thin copper layer, with holes obtained by drilling. The THGEM features are similar to those of the GEM, but a number of characteristics aspects result substantially different. This explains why we have performed a systematic study of the THGEM multiplier before starting the photon detector development. The proposed structure of the photon detector is a multi layer THGEM-based detector coupled with a solid state caesium iodide (CsI) photo cathode. Properties of the THGEM-based photon detector prototypes are also reported.