Speaker
Description
The long-term operational stability of micro-pattern gaseous detectors has emerged as a critical limitation for continuous readout at the LHC and future experiments. While Gas Electron Multipliers (GEMs) have demonstrated robust performance, the microscopic physical and chemical processes that ultimately limit their longevity have remained poorly understood.
In this contribution, I present an integrated experimental and modeling study that provides direct evidence for the dominant microscopic mechanisms driving GEM aging under realistic conditions. By combining controlled irradiation experiments, high-resolution in-situ surface analysis, and charge-transport simulations, I show that GEM degradation is primarily governed by polymer redeposition and surface-chemistry effects on copper electrodes, rather than by gas impurities alone. These processes lead to localized charge accumulation, electric-field distortions, and progressive gain loss, while potentially remaining hidden at the level of standard performance metrics.
This work explicitly addresses the ECFA Detector R&D priorities on long-term stability, radiation tolerance, and longevity of micro-pattern gaseous detectors. ALICE is used as an emblematic case study, but the identified mechanisms is directly relevant to future high-rate tracking detectors foreseen for the HL-LHC and future collider experiments. These results illustrate how nanotechnology provide essential tools to uncover detector limitations that constrain precision measurements of the primordial universe.
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