Charged particle detection in organic semiconductors

Polyacetylene is an organic semiconductor in which charges can be set free by a traversing charged particle, transported by an electric field to read-out electrodes and, subsequently, amplified and recorded in a way similar to what happens in a silicon-drift detector. In an experimental investigation of the features of this charge transport in thin foils we find drift velocities of the order of 40 cm/s. Stretching of the foils by a factor of three to four increases the drift velocity by a factor of ten and introduces a strong directionality of the charge transport. The detection efficiency of 5 MeV alpha particles in a few micron thin stretched foil is around 70%. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.