The Study Of High Position Resolution MRPC Detector

Detecting high Z material with cosmic ray muons has been a new promisingtechnology. Tomographic imaging method is based on the multiple coulomb scatteringwhen cosmic ray muons pass through the material. The key to the technology is todevelop a position sensitive detector with sub-millimeter position resolution.This project requires a detector with large sensitive area, high position resolution,high efficiency and time resolution. Multi-Gap Resistive Plate Chambers(MRPC) hasbeen our choice for tracking in the project. Some experiments are operated for theposition detection of MRPC, and finally an MRPC prototype module with large areaand sub-millimeter spatial resolution is developed.MRPC detector is a efficient new technology of gas detector. In high energyphysics and particle physics field, the most important applications of MRPC is buildinga TOF(Time Of Flight) system, as MRPC has a extraordinary good time resolution. Onthe other hand, it is known that the avalanche inside the detector is restricted in a smallarea because of the resistive plate. That means the MRPC detector can also be applied inposition detection. Some previous researches has shown that RPC/MRPC detector hasgood position resolution.Based on the structure of timing MRPC, some efforts has been taken to achieveposition detection. The many details including the design of readout strips and theconnection methods are studied and compared in experiments, and crystallized thebasic design of position sensitive MRPC. Three generations of position sensitiveMRPC are made.The first generation has small size of about10cm×10cm with fewer strips.The main purpose of the detector is to make a preliminary research on thetracking of MRPC. The first generation was tested on beam and the experimentgot a result, gained our experience in the tracking test. The second generation isdesigned based on the first generation with middle size of about40cm×20cm.The test was operated with cosmic ray test and x ray. The results shows thatMRPC detector has good tracking ability. And we concluded the way of building a stable and reliable position sensitive MRPC. Finally, The third generation withlarge area of80cm×80cm is made.The thesis also has introduction and discussion of the experimental and analysismethods. Position reconstruction of a event is developed by calibrating on the data ofcosmic ray test and observing the position resolution in x ray test. In summary, theMRPC module developed for muon tomography has a sub-millimeter resolution.