Development of a low-pressure Multi-Mesh THGEM detector for fission experiments at FRIB

• Published in: Journal of instrumentation 2024-05, Vol.19 (5), p.P05023
• Main Authors: Harca, I.M., Cortesi, M., Chyzh, R., Brown, K., McCormick, C.E., Basson, M.J.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Beams (radiation); Californium isotopes; Fission; Fragments; Heavy ions; Heavy-ion detectors; Instrumentation and methods for heavy-ion reactions and fission studies; Low pressure; Micropattern gaseous detectors (MSGC, GEM, THGEM, RETHGEM, MHSP, MICROPIC, MICROMEGAS, InGrid, etc); Particle identification methods; Position measurement; Position sensing; Prototypes; Reaction products
• ISSN: 1748-0221; 1748-0221
• DOI: 10.1088/1748-0221/19/05/P05023

A small-area imaging detector prototype for position measurement of fission fragments produced in low energy heavy-ion reactions is presented in this study. The detector readout is equipped with a 2-dimensional, position-sensitive gaseous avalanche readout based on the novel Multi-Mesh Thick-GEM (MM-THGEM), and is coupled to a delay-line board for particle localization. The prototype has an effective area of 10 × 10 cm 2 and is operated in isobutane at low pressure (7–10 Torr). We present and discuss a series of systematic evaluation tests performed by irradiating the detector with α-particles and fission fragments emitted by small-rate sources ( 241 Am, 249 Cf and 252 Cf). Position and time resolutions of about 0.42 mm and 1 ns were achieved, respectively. This work serves as a benchmark for the development of a large-scale array of detectors for experiments with fission and fission-like reaction products at the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB).