Ageing studies of resistive Micromegas detectors for the HL-LHC

Resistive-anode Micromegas detectors are in development since several years, in an effort to solve the problem of sparks when working in high flux and high radiations environment like in the HL-LHC (ten times the luminosity of the LHC). They have been chosen as one of the technologies that will be part of the ATLAS New Small Wheel project (forward muon system). An ageing study is mandatory to assess their capabilities to handle the HL-LHC environment on a long-term period. A prototype has been exposed to several types of irradiations (X-rays, cold neutrons, 60 Co gammas) up to an equivalent HL-LHC time of more than five years without showing any degradation of the performances in terms of gain and energy resolution. Beam test studies took place in October 2012 to assess the tracking performances (efficiency, spatial resolution,...). Results of ageing studies and beam test performances are reported in this paper.