Detection of strongly ionizing particles with a hydrogenated amorphous silicon detector

We report here the first results obtained with an ultrarelativistic (200A GeV/c) sulphur beam impinging on a hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) detector with p-i-n structure. In addition, measurements with α-particles (241Am) are reported in order to compare our detectors with other detectors already constructed by different laboratories. This is a novel type of device; it is presently under development and shows promising characteristics as a particle detector. In this article our results are discussed mainly in terms of the specific ionization rate. For this purpose a comparison is made with the published data obtained with low-energy protons and alphas. (orig.)