Performance and spark damage studies of microgap gas chambers fabricated with selected anode metals

Microgap gas chambers (MGCs) fabricated with selected anode metals, including aluminum, gold, chromium, nickel and titanium/tungsten (10/90) have been used in order to study the effect of these different metals upon gas gain, aging, and spark damage. Gas mixtures used for systematic tests of performance are argon/ethane (50/50) and argon/dimethyl ether (50/50). The effects of spark damage by discharge are found to be very sensitive to the metal used for anode strips, and a systematic study of spark damage effects has been made to compare their relative sensitivity to failure, over a range of electrical discharge energies.