Ageing of the LHCb outer tracker

The modules of the LHCb outer tracker have shown to suffer severe gain loss under moderate irradiation. This process is called ageing. Ageing of the modules results from contamination of the gas system by glue, araldite AY 103-1, used in their construction. In this thesis the ageing process will be shown. The schemes known to reduce, reverse, or prevent ageing have been investigated to determine their effect on the detector performance. The addition of O2 to the gas mixture lowers the detector response by an acceptable amount and does not affect the gas transport properties significantly. The ageing rate is decreased after extensive flushing and HV training could eventually repair the irradiation damage. The risks of HV training have been assessed. Furthermore, several gaseous and aquatic additions have been tested for their capability to prevent, or moderate ageing, but none showed significant improvement.