The Drift Chambers Handbook, introductory laboratory course (based on, and adapted from, A H Walenta's course notes)

Abstract

This handbook was written for the Drift Chambers introductory laboratory course to be held at 11th Mexican School of Particles and Fields that will be held at the Universidad Veracruzana on the campus of the University at Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico. This course intends to introduce drift chambers, which play an important role in particle physics experiments as tracking detectors. We start such laboratory course with a brief review of the physics theoretical background. The experimental setup consists of a single-sided, single-cell drift chamber, a plastic scintillator detector, the standard P-10 gas mixture (90% Ar, 10% CH4) and a collimated 90Sr source. The measurements on the drift velocity of electrons, its change as a function of a drift field, gas gain and diffusion are performed at this laboratory course.