Review of the development of cesium iodide photocathodes for application to large RICH detectors

摘要

CsI photocathodes were studied in order to evaluate their potential use as large photo converters in RICH detectors for the PID system of ALICE at LHC in heavy-ion collider mode. It has been demonstrated that a quantum efficiency close to the reference value obtained on small samples can be obtained on CsI layers evaporated on large pad electrodes operated in a MWPC at atmospheric pressure. We present a survey of the results obtained in the laboratory on small samples irradiated with UV-monochromatic beams and with large area RICH detectors of proximity-focusing geometry in a 3 GeV/c pion beam.