Preliminary results on the long-term operation of RPCs with eco-friendly gas mixtures under irradiation at the CERN Gamma Irradiation Facility

L. Quaglia; D. Ramos; M. Abbrescia; G. Aielli; R. Aly; M. C. Arena; M. Barroso; L. Benussi; S. Bianco; D. Boscherini; F. Bordon; A. Bruni; S. Buontempo; M. Busato; P. Camarri; R. Cardarelli; L. Congedo; D. De Jesus Damiao; M. De Serio; A. Di Ciacco; L. Di Stante; P. Dupieux; J. Eysermans; A. Ferretti; G. Galati; M. Gagliardi; S. Garetti; R. Guida; G. Iaselli; B. Joly; S. A. Juks; K. S. Lee; B. Liberti; D. Lucero Ramirez; B. Mandelli; S. P. Manen; L. Massa; A. Pastore; E. Pastori; D. Piccolo; L. Pizzimento; A. Polini; G. Proto; G. Pugliese; G. Rigoletti; A. Rocchi; M. Romano; A. Samalan; P. Salvini; R. Santonico; G. Saviano; M. Sessa; S. Simone; L. Terlizzi; M. Tytgat; E. Vercellin; M. Verzeroli; N. Zaganidis

doi:10.1140/epjp/s13360-024-05773-0

2024 Impact factor 2.9

EPJ PLUS - Condensed Matter and Complex Systems

Focus Point on the Green Transition of Gases Employed for Radiation Detection in Nuclear and High Energy Physics Experiments

Open Access

Eur. Phys. J. Plus (2025) 140: 40
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/s13360-024-05773-0

Regular Article

Preliminary results on the long-term operation of RPCs with eco-friendly gas mixtures under irradiation at the CERN Gamma Irradiation Facility

The RPC ECOgas@GIF++ Collaboration:, L. Quaglia¹^a, D. Ramos²^,3^b, M. Abbrescia³^,6, G. Aielli²¹, R. Aly³^,8, M. C. Arena¹⁷, M. Barroso¹¹, L. Benussi⁴, S. Bianco⁴, D. Boscherini⁷, F. Bordon¹⁶, A. Bruni⁷, S. Buontempo¹⁸, M. Busato¹⁶, P. Camarri²¹, R. Cardarelli¹³, L. Congedo³, D. De Jesus Damiao¹¹, M. De Serio³^,6, A. Di Ciacco²¹, L. Di Stante²¹, P. Dupieux¹⁴, J. Eysermans¹⁹, A. Ferretti¹^,12, G. Galati³^,6, M. Gagliardi¹^,12, S. Garetti¹^,12, R. Guida¹⁶, G. Iaselli²^,3, B. Joly¹⁴, S. A. Juks²⁴, K. S. Lee²³, B. Liberti¹³, D. Lucero Ramirez²², B. Mandelli¹⁶, S. P. Manen¹⁴, L. Massa⁷, A. Pastore³, E. Pastori¹³, D. Piccolo⁴, L. Pizzimento¹³, A. Polini⁷, G. Proto¹³, G. Pugliese²^,3, G. Rigoletti¹⁶, A. Rocchi¹³, M. Romano⁷, A. Samalan¹⁰, P. Salvini⁹, R. Santonico²¹, G. Saviano⁵, M. Sessa¹³, S. Simone³^,6, L. Terlizzi¹^,12, M. Tytgat¹⁰^,20, E. Vercellin¹^,12, M. Verzeroli¹⁵ and N. Zaganidis²²

¹ INFN Sezione di Torino, Via P. Giuria 1, 10126, Torino, Italy
² Politecnico di Bari, Dipartimento Interateneo di Fisica, via Amendola 173, 70125, Bari, Italy
³ INFN Sezione di Bari, Via E. Orabona 4, 70125, Bari, Italy
⁴ INFN - Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati, Via Enrico Fermi 54, 00044, Frascati, Roma, Italy
⁵ Dipartimento di Ingegneria Chimica Materiali Ambiente, Sapienza Università di Roma, Piazzale Aldo Moro 5, 00185, Roma, Italy
⁶ Dipartimento Interateneo di Fisica, Università degli studi di Bari, via Amendola 173, 70125, Bari, Italy
⁷ INFN Sezione di Bologna, Viale C. Berti Pichat 4/2, 40127, Bologna, Italy
⁸ Helwan University, Helwan Sharkeya, 4037120, Helwan, Cairo Governorate, Egypt
⁹ INFN Sezione di Pavia, Via A. Bassi 6, 27100, Pavia, Italy
¹⁰ Dept. of Physics and Astronomy, Ghent University, Proeftuinstraat 86, 9000, Ghent, Belgium
¹¹ Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, R. So Francisco Xavier, 524 - Maracana, 20550-013, Rio de Janeiro - RJ, Brasil
¹² Dipartimento di Fisica, Università degli studi di Torino, Via P. Giuria 1, 10126, Torino, Italy
¹³ INFN Sezione di Roma Tor Vergata, Via della Ricerca Scientifica 1, 00133, Roma, Italy
¹⁴ CNRS/IN2P3, Laboratoire de Physique Corpusculaire, Clermont Université, Université Blaise Pascal, BP 10448, 63000, Clermont-Ferrand, France
¹⁵ Universitè Claude Bernard Lyon I, 43 Bd du 11 Novembre 1918, 69100, Villeurbanne, France
¹⁶ CERN, Espl. des Particules 1, 1211, Meyrin, Svizzera
¹⁷ Università degli studi di Pavia, Corso Strada Nuova 65, 27100, Pavia, Italy
¹⁸ INFN Sezione di Napoli, Complesso Universitario di Mone S. Angelo ed. 6, Via Cintia, 80126, Napoli, Italy
¹⁹ Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Ave, MA 02139, Cambridge, USA
²⁰ Dept. of Physics, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB-ELEM), Pleinlaan 2, 1050, Brussels, Belgium
²¹ Dipartimento di Fisica, Università degli studi di Roma Tor Vergata, via della Ricerca Scientifica 1, 00133, Roma, Italy
²² Dept. de Fisica y Matematicas, Universidad Iberoamericana, 01210, Mexico City, Mexico
²³ Korea University, 145 Anam-ro, Seongbuk-gu, Seoul, South Korea
²⁴ Universitè Paris-Saclay, 3 rue Joliot Curie, 91190, Bâtiment Breguet, Gif-sur-Yvette, France

^a luca.quaglia@cern.ch
^b dayron.ramos.lopez@cern.ch

Received: 25 November 2023
Accepted: 24 October 2024
Published online: 15 January 2025

Abstract

Since 2019, a collaboration between researchers from various institutes and experiments (i.e., ATLAS, CMS, ALICE, LHCb/SHiP and the CERN EP-DT group) has been operating several RPCs with diverse electronics, gas gap thicknesses and detector layouts at the CERN Gamma Irradiation Facility (GIF++). The studies aim at assessing the performance of RPCs when filled with new eco-friendly gas mixtures in avalanche mode and in view of evaluating possible aging effects after long high background irradiation periods, for example, high-luminosity LHC phase. This challenging research is also part of a task of the European AidaInnova project. A promising eco-friendly gas identified for RPC operation is the tetrafluoruropropene (C $_{3}$ $_{3}$ H $_{2}$ $_{2}$ F $_{4}$ $_{4}$ , commercially known as HFO-1234ze) that has been studied at the CERN GIF++ in combination with different percentages of CO $_{2}$ $$_2$$ . Between the end of 2021 and 2022, several beam tests have been carried out to establish the performance of RPCs operated with such mixtures before starting the irradiation campaign for the aging study. Results of these tests for different RPCs layouts and different gas mixtures, under increasing background rates are presented here, together with the preliminary outcome of the detector aging tests.

© The Author(s) 2024

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