An Atomic Force Microscopy Investigation of the Tracks Made byC1+-C4+ Bombardment on CR-39 Detectors

Abstract

Carbon micro-clusters are accelerated by an HI-13 tandemaccelerator. The plastic nuclear track detectors CR-39 are irradiatedby C1−C4 beams from the HI-13 tandemaccelerator and the tracks in CR-39 are studied using an atomic forcemicroscope (AFM). The depths and diameters of C1–C4 tracksare measured for the first time in a nanometrescale. An enhancement of the energy loss is obtained for carbon clustersrelated to single carbon ions with the same velocity. The resultsshow that the AFM observation is very useful in the quantitativeanalysis of clusters in the track detector CR-39.