Studies of CR-39 etch rates

Abstract

A series of chemical etching experiments have been carried out on CR-39 detectors irradiated with fission fragments of 252Cf to study the bulk and track etching characteristics. Experimental data has been analyzed to find out important track etch parameters. Both bulk and track etch rates are found to follow the Arrhenius equation which gives the variation of etch rate with temperature for a specific set of etching conditions. Activation energies for bulk and track etching have been determined by fitting Arrhenius equation to the experimental data. Other track etch parameters, e.g. critical angle of etching and track registration efficiency have also been determined using experimental data. Track etch parameters depend on properties of incident ion and etching conditions. Results describing the dependence of track etch parameters on etching conditions have been presented. These results are useful in the interpretation of track data.