Measurement of the spark probability of a GEM detector for the CBM muon chamber (MuCh)

Abstract The triple GEM detectors for the CBM muon chamber (MuCh) will be operated in a high rate environment of heavily ionizing particles due to the presence of thick iron absorber in the system. Therefore, the stability of the detectors needs to be tested. In a dedicated beam time double mask triple GEM detectors have been tested at CERN SPS/H4. In this study pion beam of ~ 150 GeV/c has been used. Different methods to determine the spark has been described in this paper. The stability of the triple GEM detector setup in an environment of high energetic showers is studied. To this end the spark probability in a shower environment is compared to the spark probability in a pion beam. The spark probability was found to be ~ 10 − 7 in a high momentum pion beam and in an induced particle shower.