Development of multi-gap resistive plate chambers with low-resistive silicate glass electrodes for operation at high particle fluxes and large transported charges

Using electrodes made of semi-conductive glass is an innovative way of improving the rate capability of resistive plate chambers. To address this issue, we developed 6- and 10-gap counters with low-resistive silicate glass electrodes (bulk resistivity ∼1010 Ω cm) suited for time-of-flight (TOF) applications at high rates and high transported charges. Measurements were performed at GSI-Darmstadt under uniform an irradiation by secondary particles stemming from proton reactions at 2.5 GeV/A. For the 10-gap MRPC, time resolutions below 90 ps and efficiencies larger than 90% were obtained at counting rates up to 25 kHz/cm2. When the particle flux increases every 5 kHz/cm2, the efficiency decreases by 1% and the time resolution deteriorates by 4 ps. A tolerable decrease of the material conductivity was also observed for a total transported charge of 1 C/cm2.