Fission yields measured with target materials in contact with solid state track detectors

Abstract

The configuration of the contact of fissionable target materials with dielectric track detectors is reviewed to obtain fission yields corrected for fragment self-absorption in fisson sources of different thicknesses and for optical magnification for the observation of etched fission tracks. Total detection efficiency and ‘effective’ thickness of the target sample are obtained in the case of formation of cone-shaped tracks by etching. A number of useful formulae for evaluation of fission yields in both induced and spontaneous fission experiments is reported. The method can be extended and applied also to fission-related problems, natural and induced emission of nuclear fragments, as well as nuclear reaction studies.