Laser calibration

Introduction

Both the prototype and final TPC have aluminium strips on the central cathode that are intended for laser calibration. To that end a plane of UV laser light is sent into the TPC intersecting with the strips. Each laser pulse should then create a bunch of electrons with well defined position and time at each of the strips.

Photoelectron efficiency tests

One worry with the intended geometry is that the laser hits the far strips at a very glancing angle, and it was assumed the photoelectron efficiency (i.e. number of photoelectrons per photon) would go down in favour of reflection. To prevent this two methods of surface treatment were considered, and both the validity of the aforementioned assumption as well as the effectiveness of the treatments were investigated in a test setup at UBC. Details and results are given in this report.