The MIDAS experiment: MIcrowave Detection of Air Showers

Recent measurements suggest that extensive air showers initiated by high energy cosmic rays (above 1 EeV) emit signals in the microwave band of the EM spectrum caused by the collisions of the free-electrons with the atmospheric neutral molecules in the plasma produced by the passage of the shower. Such emission is isotropic and could allow the detection of air showers with 100\% duty cycle and a calorimetric-like energy measurement - a significant improvement over current detection techniques. We have built a MIDAS prototype, which consists of a 4.5 m diameter antenna with a cluster of 55 feed-horns in the 4 GHz range, covering a $10^{\circ} \times 10^{\circ}$ field of view, with self-triggering capability. The details of the prototype and first results will be presented.