Charge amplification and transfer processes in the gas electron multiplier.

We report the results of systematic investigations on the operating properties of detectors based on the gas electron multiplier (GEM). The dependence of gain and charge collection efficiency on the external fields has been studied in a range of values for the hole diameter and pitch. The collection efficiency of ionization electrons into the multiplier, after an initial increase, reaches a plateau extending to higher values of drift field the larger the GEM voltage and its optical transparency. The effective gain, fraction of electrons collected by an electrode following the multiplier, increases almost linearly with the collection field, until entering a steeper parallel plate multiplication regime. The maximum effective gain attainable increases with the reduction in the hole diameter, stabilizing to a constant value at a diameter approximately corresponding to the foil thickness. Charge transfer properties appear to depend only on ratios of fields outside and within the channels, with no interaction between the external fields. With proper design, GEM detectors can be optimized to satisfy a wide range of experimental requirements: tracking of minimum ionizing particles, good electron collection with small distortions in high magnetic fields, improved multi-track resolution and strong ion feedback suppression in large volume and time-projection chambers.