Large-area non-crystalline semiconductor detectors

The properties of various noncrystalline semiconductors are considered for use as position sensitive detectors. Amorphous silicon and conducting plastic can be doped to form NP depletion regions similar to those in single crystal silicon, but without the limitation of single crystal size. Chalcogenide glassy materials such as Te-Se-Ge compounds as well as some metallic oxides such as the Vanadium oxides have switching and memory properties. They could serve as x,y location identifying devices when triggered by amplified pulses from a parallel plate or multistep gas filled detector stage in order to resolve the multitrack ambiguity for x,y readout schemes.