Operation of a GEM-TPC with pixel readout

A prototype time projection chamber with 26 cm drift length was operated with a short-spaced triple gas electron multiplier (GEM) stack in a setup triggering on cosmic muon tracks. A small part of the anode plane is read out with a CMOS pixel application-specified integrated circuit (ASIC) named Timepix, which provides ultimate readout granularity. Pixel clusters of charge depositions corresponding to single primary electrons are observed and analyzed to reconstruct charged particle tracks. A dataset of several weeks of cosmic ray data is analyzed. The number of clusters per track length is well described by simulation. The obtained single point resolution approaches 50 m at short drift distances and is well reproduced by a simple model of single-electron diffusion.