Silicon sampling hadronic calorimetry: A tool for experiments at the next generation of colliders

The SICAPO Collaboration project to build a perfectly compensating hadron calorimeter using silicon as the active medium, is described. The insertion of low-Z material (G10 plates) in front or at the rear of the silicon detectors allows fine tuning of the calorimeter response to electromagnetic showers. This is a new approach to obtaining compensation. The tuning can be exploited to obtain e/π = 1 (compensation condition). The expected performance ranks this calorimeter among the best candidates to face the severe constraints requested by the next generation of colliders.