Studies of helium based drift chamber gases for high-luminosity low energy machines

Future high luminosity low energy machines will need low mass tracking chambers to order to minimize multiple scattering of the relatively low momentum tracks produced at these facilities. A drift chamber using a helium based gas rather than a conventional argon based gas would greatly reduce the amount of multiple scattering. This paper summarizes measurements of the drift velocity and position resolution for gas mixtures of helium with CO2 and isobutane and helium with DME. Good spatial resolutions are obtained. A design of a drift chamber with only 0.12% of a radiation length (gas plus wire) over a 60 cm tracking distance is presented