What exactly is the physics behind transition radiation and TR detectors?

[Whiteblooded]

I'm currently studying modern particle detectors, and was wondering whether someone on physicsforums could explain what transition radiation really is, and how exactly it is detected?

My knowledge:
- I've read that Cherenkov radiation is similar to transition radiation.
- I understand how measuring Cherenkov radiation for fast moving particles cones in large water tanks using PMTs (like in the Superkamio Kande experiment), how particle momenta can be deduced.
- I understand that transition radiation occurs when relativistic particles travel through materials with inhomogeneous refractive indicies - though, I'm not sure why. I also heard that in particle detectors, it is more useful to use transition radiation to measure momentum, as it is easier to deduce the type of the particle - not sure why.

I've been reading quite a few web pages, to no avail.. they're all either really complicated or all really basic.. Just wondering if anyone could give me something somewhere in between?

Thanks in advance

 

[Whiteblooded]

.. nobody?

 

[Drakkith]

I glanced at the wikipedia article, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transition_radiation, and it seemed to explain the why and how behind it. Have you looked there yet?