ABS plastic RPCs

After investigating a number of materials, we discovered that an ABS plastic doped with a conducting polymer performs well as the resistive electrode in a narrow gap RPC (resistive plate chamber). Operating in the streamer mode, we find efficiencies of 90-96% with low noise and low strip multiplicities. We have also studied a variety of operating gases and found that a mixture containing SF{sub 6}, a non-ozone depleting gas, argon and isobutane gives good streamer mode performance, even with isobutane concentrations of 20% or less.