The first phase of a study of GaAs as a base material for solid-state detectors has been completed. The main motivation behind this study is the greater radiation resistance of integrated circuits made of GaAs (compared with Si). Many diodes, of different sizes and shapes but built with the same technique, have been tested electrically and as detectors, using α sources and minimum-ionizing particles. The tests show that these devices work with a full detection effeciency, although there is evidence for trapping of a fraction of the charge produced by the particle inside the semiconductor.