The Resistive-Plate WELL with Argon mixtures - A robust gaseous radiation detector

A thin single-element THGEM-based, Resistive-Plate WELL (RPWELL) detector was operated with 150 GeV/c muon and pion beams in Ne/(5%CH4), Ar/(5%CH4) and Ar/(7%CO2); signals were recorded with 1 cm2 square pads and SRS/APV25 electronics. Detection efficiency values greater than 98% were reached in all the gas mixtures, at average pad multiplicity of 1.2. The use of the 109 Ω cm resistive plate resulted in a completely discharge-free operation also in intense pion beams. The efficiency remained essentially constant at 98-99% up to fluxes of ∼104 Hz/cm2, dropping by a few % when approaching 105 Hz/cm2. These results pave the way towards cost-effective, robust, efficient, large-scale detectors for a variety of applications in future particle, astro-particle and applied fields. A potential target application is digital hadron calorimetry.