Study of ionization losses in He-based gas mixtures

Helium based gas mixtures are particularly interesting since they have a good tracking resolution because of the reduced multiple scattering. We have studied the differential energy loss dE/dx in several mixtures, He-isobutane and He-ethane. We present results from measurements performed with electrons, pions and protons in the momentum range between 1 and 5 GeV/c obtained in a prototype drift chamber with a 3 cm cell. The results show that helium performs well in measuring energy losses for charged particles.