Beam studies of thin single- and double-stage THGEM-based detectors are presented. Several 10 x 10 cm^2 configurations with a total thickness of 5-6 mm (excluding readout electronics), with 1 x 1 cm^2 pads inductively coupled through a resistive layer to APV-SRS readout electronics, were investigated with muons and pions. Detection efficiencies in the 98% range were recorded with an average pad-multiplicity of ~1.1. The resistive anode resulted in efficient discharge damping, with few-volt potential drops; discharge probabilities were ~10^{-7} for muons and 10^{-6} for pions in the double-stage configuration, at rates of a few kHz/cm^2. These results, together with the robustness of THGEM electrodes against spark damage and their suitability for economic production over large areas make THGEM-based detectors highly competitive compared to the other technologies considered for the SiD-DHCAL.
@article{arxiv.1305.4657,
title = {Beam studies of novel THGEM-based potential sampling elements for Digital Hadron Calorimetry},
author = {S. Bressler and L. Arazi and H. Natal da Luz and C. D. A. Azevedo and L. Moleri and E. Oliveri and M. Pitt and A. Rubin and J. M. F. dos Santos and J. F. C. A. Veloso and A. Breskin},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1305.4657},
year = {2013}
}