  The utilisation of crystalline semiconductor materials as detectors and
devices operating in high radiation environments, at the future particle
colliders, in space applications, in medicine and industry, makes necessary to
obtain radiation harder materials. Diamond, SiC and different AIIIBV compounds
(GaAs, GaP, InP, InAs, InSb) are possible competitors for silicon to different
electronic devices for the up-mentioned applications. The main goal of this
paper is to give theoretical predictions about the behaviour of these
semiconductors in hadron fields (pions, protons). The effects of the
interaction between the incident particle and the semiconductor are
characterised in the present paper both from the point of view of the
projectile, the relevant quantity being the energy loss by nuclear
interactions, and of the target, using the concentration of primary radiation
induced defects on unit particle fluence. Some predictions about the damage
induced by hadrons in these materials in possible applications in particle
physics and space experiments are done.
