Effect of pre-etching on the registration in CR-39 of electrochemically-etched tracks of protons and alpha particles of different energies

✍ Scribed by W.G. Cross; A. Arneja; H. Ing

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1984
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 348 KB
• Volume: 8
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0735-245X
• DOI: 10.1016/0735-245x(84)90066-8

✦ Synopsis

The amount of pre-etchlng needed to register electrochemlcally-etched (ECE) tracks efficiently in CR-39 varies with the particle LET.

This dependence was studied for monoenergetlc alpha particles from i to 5.5 MeV and protons from 0.4 to 13.8 MeV. Pre-etchlng must be between upper and lower limits, both of which increase with particle energy.

For 6N KOH at 60°C, optimal times varied from 2 to 40 hours for protons up to 6 MeV.

Above 6 MeV no ECE tracks were obtained although chemlcally-etched tracks were visible up to i0 MeV.

This behavlour helps to explain the response of ECE CR-39 to neutrons of different energies.