Effects of Ultrasound in Etching and Detecting Parameters of CR-39 Detector

Abstract

Effect of 40 kHz ultrasound (US) in chemical etching of alpha-particle tracks in CR-39 solid state nuclear track detector were investigated. Alpha-particle irradiations (using 1 µCi ²⁴¹Am source) were made with different energies under normal incidence. All track etch rates V_D, V_B, V_T and V increased, but the critical angle of the detector θ_C decreased. The maximum increase in the bulk etch rate V_B , the track's diameter growing rate V_D, the etch rate ratio V, the etching efficiency  and sensitivity S were about 12% , 20%, 25%, 12.5% and
27.2%, respectively, while the decrease in the critical angle was about 15.2%. These results were in agreement with th ose found by [1,2]. A minimum detection threshold energy of alphaparticle ~0.2 MeV was recorded.

Keywords: CR-39; Ultrasound; Track Etch; Alpha Particle.