Application of Semiconductor Detectors in High Energy Physics

Abstract

Until the late 1970s semiconductor detectors were employed in High Energy Physics as good energy resolution, limited area, special purpose devices. Extensive use of these devices was prohibitive both because of their cost and the cost of the associated electronics. The applications were then limited to a few detectors used for example as live targets or for recoil proton spectroscopy. In this decade, crystal processing systems were put into operation in several laboratories active in H.E.P. allowing low cost production of relatively big series of detectors. The cost of the associated electronics has also decreased steadily, so that multi-electrode silicon detectors have become very popular as tracking devices. Today their use is fairly extensive and expectations are that it will increase in the future at next generation high luminosity accelerators.