Development and First Tests of GEM-Like Detectors With Resistive Electrodes

We have developed and tested several prototypes of GEM-like detectors with electrodes coated with resistive layers or completely made of resistive materials. These detectors can operate stably at gains close to 10 <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">5</sup> . The resistive layers limit the energy of discharges appearing at higher gains thus making the detectors very robust. We demonstrated that the cathodes of some of these detectors could be coated by CsI or SbCs layers to enhance the detection efficiency for the UV and visible photons. We also discovered that such detectors can operate stably in the cascade mode and high overall gains (~10 <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">6</sup> ) are reachable. Applications in several areas, for example in RICH or in noble liquid TPCs are therefore possible. The first results from the detection of UV photons at room and cryogenic temperatures will be given.