Review of amorphous silicon based particle detectors: the quest for single particle detection

Hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si: H) is attractive for radiation detectors because of its radiation resistance and processability over large areas with mature Si microfabrication techniques. While the use of a-Si: H for medical imaging has been very successful, the development of detectors for particle tracking and minimum-ionizing-particle detection has lagged, with almost no practical implementation. This paper reviews the development of various types of a-Si: H-based detectors and discusses their respective achievements and limitations. It also presents more recent developments of detectors that could potentially achieve single particle detection and be integrated in a monolithic fashion into a variety of applications.