Performance study of THGEM-based semi-cylindrical TPC for intermediate-energy charge exchange reaction experiments in inverse kinematics

Abstract: The semi-cylindrical Time Projection Chamber (scTPC) is designed to measure the angular distribution of the cross section of the intermediate-energy (³He,t) charge exchange reaction in inverse kinematics. The scTPC prototype has been constructed, consisting of a cathode, a field cage, a drift region, an amplification structure based on multi-layer thick gas electron multiplier (THGEM), and a readout plane with 886 zigzag-shaped pads. The gain uniformity of the THGEM and the drift velocity of electrons were calibrated. Then the track recognition based on the Hough transform was developed to reconstruct cosmic ray tracks and extract their position resolution. The position resolution of the secondary particle tracks from collisions between the heavy-ion beam and ³He target was also reported, with an x-resolution of 0.71 mm and a z-resolution of 0.73 mm. The scTPC is able to achieve sufficient energy resolution and spatial resolution to support the charge exchange reaction experiments in inverse kinematics.