Absolute position measurement in a gas time projection chamber via transverse diffusion of drift charge

Journal Article · Sat Mar 21 00:00:00 EDT 2015 · Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research. Section A, Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nima.2015.03.024· OSTI ID:1598671

Lewis, P. M.  ^[1]; Vahsen, S. E. ^[1]; Seong, I. S. ^[1]; Hedges, M. T. ^[1]; Jaegle, I.  ^[1]; Thorpe, T. N. ^[1]

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1. Univ. of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI (United States)

Time Projection Chambers (TPCs) with charge readout via micro pattern gaseous detectors can provide detailed measurements of charge density distributions. We here report on measurements of alpha particle tracks, using a TPC where the drift charge is amplified with Gas Electron Multipliers and detected with a pixel ASIC. We find that by measuring the 3-D topology of drift charge and fitting for its transverse diffusion, we obtain the absolute position of tracks in the drift direction. For example, we obtain a precision of 1~cm for 1~cm-long alpha track segments. To our knowledge this is the first demonstration of such a measurement in a gas TPC. This technique has several attractive features: it does not require knowledge of the initial specific ionization, is robust against bias from diffuse charge below detection threshold, and is also robust against high charge densities that saturate the detector response.

• Research Organization: Univ. of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP)
• Grant/Contract Number: SC0010504; SC0007852
• OSTI ID: 1598671
• Alternate ID(s): OSTI ID: 1247393
• Journal Information: Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research. Section A, Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, Vol. 789, Issue C; ISSN 0168-9002
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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