Gem Detectors For the Transverse Profile Measurement of Low Energy Antiprotons and High Energy Hadrons

Gas Electron Multipliers (GEM) are finding more and more applications in beam instrumentation. Gas Electron Multiplication is a very similar physical phenomenon to that which occurs in Multi Wire Proportional Chambers (MWPC), but for small profile monitors GEMs are much more cost effective to produce and maintain. \nIn 2012, all Multi-Wire Proportional Chambers in the experimental areas of the Antiproton Decelerator at CERN were successfully replaced by Gas Electron Multipliers. This paper describes the choice of detector and reports on the commissioning of 20 GEM detectors for transverse profile measurement on low energy antiproton beams (5.3 MeV, equal to 100 MeV/c). It will also cover the development of, and first results from, a new 200x200 mm GEM detector for profiling the high energy muon beam (172 GeV/c) delivered to the COMPASS experiment and discuss the outlook for replacing all Multi-Wire Proportional Chambers in the CERN experimental areas by GEM based monitors