Triple GEM operation in compressed He and Kr

Nucl.Instrum.Meth. A493 (2002) 8-15 We study the performance of the triple GEM (Gas Electron Multiplier) detector in pure noble gases He and Kr at high pressures, varying from 1 to 15 atm. The operation in these gases is compared to that recently studied in Ne, Ar and Xe. It turned out that light noble gases, He and Ne, have superior performance: the highest gain, approaching 10^5, and an unusual gain dependence on pressure. In particular, the maximum gain in He and Ne does not decrease with pressure, in contrast to Ar, Kr and Xe. These results are of high relevance for understanding basic mechanisms of electron avalanching in noble gases and for applications in cryogenic particle detectors, X-ray imaging and neutron detectors.