Construction and Performance of a Micro-Pattern Stereo Detector with Two Gas Electron Multipliers

Abstract The construction of a micro-pattern gas detector of dimensions 40×10 cm 2 is described. Two gas electron multiplier foils (GEM) provide the internal amplification stages. A two-layer readout structure was used, manufactured using the same technology as the GEM foils. The strips of each layer cross at an effective crossing angle of 6.7° and have a 406 μm pitch. The performance of the detector has been evaluated in a muon beam at CERN using a silicon telescope as reference system. The position resolutions of two orthogonal coordinates are measured to be 50 μm and 1 mm , respectively. The muon detection efficiency for two-dimensional space points reaches 96%.