A many particle-tracking detector with drift planes and segmented cathode readout

The design and performance of a detector system for tracking charged particles in an environment of high track density and rates up to 1 MHz are described. The system operates in the forward spectrometer of the Brookhaven National Laboratory heavy ion experiment E814 and uses principles of general interest in high-rate, high-multiplicity applications such as at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider or the Superconducting Supercollider. The system is required to perform over a large dynamic range, detecting singly charged particles as well as fully ionized relativistic /sup 28/Si. Results on gas gain saturation, delta -ray suppression, and overall detector performance in the presence of a 14.6-GeV/nucleon /sup 28/Si beam and a 14-GeV proton beam are presented.<>