Chemical Bonds Broken in Latent Tracks of Light Ions in Plastic Track Detectors

Authors

R. Barillon, Université Louis Pasteur, Institut de Recherches Subatomiques CNRS/IN2P3, 67037 Strasbourg, France
M. Fromm, Université de Franche Comté, Laboratoire de Microanalyses Nucléaires, EA473, LRC CEA M07, Besancon, FranceFollow
Robert Katz, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
A. Chambaudet, Université de Franche Comté, Laboratoire de Microanalyses Nucléaires, EA473, LRC CEA M07, Besancon, France

Date of this Version

June 2002

Comments

Published in Radiation Protection Dosimetry 99:1–4 (2002), pp. 359-362. Copyright © 2002 Nuclear Technology Publishing/Oxford University Press. http://rpd.oxfordjournals.org Used by permission.

Abstract

When a swift ion is slowed down through a plastic detector it creates a latent track. In nuclear track detectors, this latent track can be specifically etched by an appropriate chemical solution. This enlargement process is due to a higher etch velocity (V_T) along the ion's path than in the non-damaged part of the detector. The etched track velocity is definitely linked to the damage created by the incoming ion in the detector material. A relationship between the physical parameters of the energy deposition and the variation in this etched track velocity with the ion energy cannot easily be explained. We present here our study on the chemical damage created by several ions in a cellulose nitrate type detector and our first attempt to simulate them by the use of the hit theory.