Novel mercuric iodide polycrystalline nuclear particles counters

Polycrystalline mercuric iodide nuclear radiation detectors having areas between 0.01 to 100 cm(2) and thicknesses 30 to 600 microns, have been fabricated with single, linear strip and square pixel contacts. The large area detectors 10 to 600 cm(2) were produced by industrial ceramic equipment while the smaller ones, about 1 cm(2) area, were produced in the laboratory. The large detectors still had large leakage currents and the production process is being revised. The smaller detectors were tested and their response to lower and higher gamma energy, beta and even 100 GeV muons at CERN will be reported.