R&D studies ongoing at DESY on a time projection chamber for a detector at the International Linear Collider

A large volume Time Projection Chamber (TPC) has been proposed as the main tracking device for one of the experiments at the International Linear Collider (ILC). Gas Electron Multipliers (GEMs) are being studied as potential replacements for the conventional wire-based gas amplification system of TPCs. In this paper, recent results are presented from R&D activities with small GEM–TPC prototypes ongoing at DESY.