Patent ID: 7196333

Claim:
Detector of incident ionizing radiation constituted of primary particles, this detector being characterised in that it comprises: layers of a semiconducting composite material comprising a host matrix made of a polymer and guest particles of the semiconductor type dispersed throughout the host matrix, at least these guest particles being capable of interacting directly or indirectly with the radiation, electric charges being produced in the layers of the composite material from the interaction of the guest particles with the radiation, means for creating an electric field in the layers of composite material, the host matrix being capable of transporting the electric charges under the action of this electric field and thus making it possible to exploit these electric charges, and a stack of sheets of a first material which is capable of emitting secondary particles by interaction with the incident ionising radiation, the layers of composite material alternating with the sheets of the first material and being able to be ionized by the secondary particles, each of the layers being associated with one of the sheets, the stack having first and second opposite faces, each containing respective edges of sheets and layers, the detector being intended to be oriented such that the ionizing radiation arrives on the first face, the length of each sheet, counted from the first to the second face, being at least equal to the tenth of the mean free path of the primary particles in the first material, the means for creating the electric field comprising, for each layer, a group of parallel and electrically conductive tracks which extend from the first to the second face, parallel to this layer, and which are in contact with it, the tracks also being intended to collect the charges produced in this layer by interaction between it and the secondary particles and possibly with the primary particles and which are representative, in intensity and in position, of the primary particles, the electric field also being capable of provoking the collection of charges by the tracks.