Multi-channel wire gas electron multipliers with gaps between the electrodes of 1 and 3mm

Multi-channel wire gas electron multipliers (MWGEM) with gaps between the electrodes of 1 and 3mm were investigated. The chamber of the MWGEM was filled with pure commercial neon gas at pressure of 0.4 or 1.0 bar and irradiated by alpha-particles (Pu-239) or beta-particles (Ni-63). The following maximal coefficients of electrons proportional multiplication have been obtained: 6 \times 10^3 (alpha, d=3mm, P=1bar, 20% streamers); 1.2 \times 10^3 (beta-, d=3mm, P=1bar, 50% streamers); 6 \times 10^3 (alpha, d=3mm, P=0.4bar, 20% streamers); 10^5 (beta-, d=3mm, P=0.4bar, 50% streamers). For the case, when the multiplication took place simultaneously in the MWGEM gap and in its anode gap, the following maximal coefficients of proportional multiplication of electrons have been obtained: 1.08 \times 10^5 (beta-, d=1mm, P=0.4bar, 50% streamers); 2 \times 10^6 (beta-, d=3mm, P=0.4bar, 20% streamers); 1.12 \times 10^5 (alpha, d=3mm, P=0.4bar, 50% streamers).