Abstract
The potential of the high resolution nuclear track detector (NTD) CR-39 is examined carefully for the measurement of relativistic nuclear projectile fragmentation cross sections and studies of related processes using the experience of many years of such measurements. The charge resolution and the charge resolving power of CR-39 detectors for the measurements of 158 A GeV 207Pb projectiles and their fragments are presented. Exposures of target-detector stacks, the chemical etching procedure and the nuclear track measurements are described in detail discussing precautions and possible errors. The procedures discussed are also valid for other NTDs. A comparison with electronic active detectors is also made considering important detection and measurement aspects. An experimental design proposing the co-use of NTDs with in-use active detectors is described.
Highlights
Fragmentation properties of shielding materials can affect protection of astronauts seriously
Each peak can be designated with a charge Z as most of the projectile energy is deposited in a solid (CR-39 here) through Coulomb interaction
Selected results of experiments, carried out over many years with the main aim of precise measurements of relativistic nuclear projectile fragmentation cross sections and related processes using nuclear track detector (NTD), were discussed and we cover some major aspects of nuclear track detection technique
Summary
Fragmentation properties of shielding materials can affect protection of astronauts seriously. Radiations have an adverse effect on microelectronic devices employed in the control systems of high altitude commercial aviation aircrafts and spacecrafts, leading to the failure of such devices [1]. Nuclear fragmentation cross sections are crucial to issues of radiation transport through shielding materials and resulting shielding effect [2]. Nuclear fragmentation cross sections give information about collision dynamics of high energy heavy nuclei like lead and uranium. Various techniques [3,4,5,6,7,8] have been employed for studies of nuclear fragmentation and other reactions, including solid state nuclear track detector (NTD) [9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18].
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