Performance of resistive plate chambers under irradiation of 136Xe at relativistic energies

Time resolution and efficiency of single-gap (300μm) multi-strip timing resistive plate chambers (tRPC) have been investigated using 136Xe ions accelerated at 560A MeV with different rates. A time resolution of 37 ps (standard deviation) has been achieved for an irradiation rate of 12Hz∕cm2. The tRPC also provides a detection efficiency above 98%. Our results show that an increase of the irradiation rate clearly leads to a degradation of the time resolution and a quenching of the signal charge.