Fine Pitch GEMs in Triple GEM detectors

Thus project has been research into whether certain properties of the standard triple GEM detector can be improved by using a GEM foil with a smaller pitch. The investigation focused on three properties: Spatial resolution of the detector, high gain/saturation effects at high gain of the detector, and stability towards discharges in the detector. The preliminary results indicate that an improvement of the spatial resolution when using the finer pitch GEM is achievable. The saturation measurements were done for the fine pitch GEM hinting at the great importance of diffusion of the charge cloud and thus the number of holes included in the amplification process, but unfortunately the summer studentship ended before completing corresponding measurements using the standard GEM. Steps were taken towards starting this investigation of discahrges, but no measurements were taken before the end of the summer studentship.