PoS - Proceedings of Science
Volume 414 - 41st International Conference on High Energy physics (ICHEP2022) - Detectors for Future Facilities, R&D, novel techniques
Irradiation and longevity test of Resistive Micromegas detectors
P. Iengo* and G. Sekhniaidze
Full text: pdf
Pre-published on: November 22, 2022
Published on: June 15, 2023
Abstract
A long-term irradiation and longevity test was conducted on two bulk-Micromegas detectors with screen-printed resistive strips, operated with Ar:CO2 gas mixture at the CERN GIF++ facility between 2015 and 2018.
The results have been presented at previous conferences and published. In that test the detectors have integrated a total charge of about 0.3 C/cm2.

One of the detectors irradiated at GIF++ has subsequently undergone an ageing test with X-rays from Cu, this time with an Ar:CO2:iC4H10 mixture to study the effect of hydrocarbons like isobutane to the detector longevity.
The resistive Micromegas under test has accumulated a total charge exceeding 1.5~C/cm2, corresponding to about 15 years of equivalent irradiation of Muon detectors in the High Luminosity era of LHC and more than 5 at future hadron colliders like FCC-hh.
The detector has been irradiated with an X-rays beam of variable intensity and the current, the gas temperature, humidity and pressure, and the environmental parameters have been monitored and registered all along the duration of the test. A second detector with identical construction and characteristics, operated at the same voltages and with the same gas but not irradiated, is used as reference chamber. Charge spectra with an 55Fe source have been acquired at regular intervals for both detectors to monitor the evolution of the gain and energy resolution.
The same test has been repeated by operating the detector with Ar:CO2 gas mixture.

The paper describes the experimental setup and test operation, with focus on the main results and their interpretation. In particular we observe that the energy resolution stays largely unchanged, while the gain slowly reduces with irradiation, an effect interpreted as owed to charge up of the detector structure. No indication of performance degradation related to aging has been observed.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.22323/1.414.0351
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