  The intrinsic rate capability and the ageing properties of the Resistive
Plate Chambers are closely related to the electrodes material and to the
front-end electronics threshold. The development of a low noise pre-amplifier
led us to improve the intrinsic rate capability of High Pressure Laminate
(bakelite) up to $\sim10\;kHz/cm^2$, nevertheless the effective rate is
significantly limited by electrodes ageing. To further improve the effective
rate capability new materials are investigated. A Resistive Plate Chamber with
crystalline semi-insulating Gallium Arsenide electrodes has been characterized
with high energy electrons beam at the Beam Test Facility (BFT), (INFN National
Laboratory of Frascati, Italy). The response of the Resistive Plate Chamber to
multiple bunched electrons was measured operating the detector in avalanche
mode. The intrinsic rate capability has been also measured operating the
detector in a uniform high energy gamma radiation field at the GIF++ facility
(EHN1 of SPS, CERN).
