Resistive Plate Chamber Rate Capability Studies

Bakelite RPCs have been used in first level muon trigger applications ~in the CMS and ATLAS experiments at LHC and in the PHENIX experiment~at RHIC. ~In hadron colliders RPCs have to withstand high levels of background ~rates. Using a novel method to test rate capability with a radioactive source, we have studied the possibility to further increase the rate capability~of bakelite RPCs by changing the resistivity of the bakelite surface coating.