The role of etching conditions in changing the energy resolution of glass and plastic solid state nuclear track detectors

Abstract

This paper describes the experiments carried out to study the dependence of the fission fragment energy resolution properties of a phosphate glass and of a polycarbonate plastic solid state nuclear track detector (SSNTD) on the etching conditions. The phosphate glass detectors were etched in (a) 10.7, 7.7, and 0.34N solutions of NaOH, KOH and LiOH kept at (50 ± 1)°C, respectively and (b) 40% hydrofluoric acid kept at room temperatire for varying time intervals. The polycarbonate track detectors were etched in 7.7N solution of KOH kept at (50 ± 1)°C for various etching times. It was found that (a) in general, the energy resolution improves with the increasing etching time, (b) within an etching time of about 20 h, NaOH and KOH appear to be almost equally effective, Li(OH) is the most efficient, while the HF etching exhibits the worst resolution. Attempts made to prepare a reasonably effective aqueous solution of Ca(OH) 2 could not be successful. The polycarbonate (Makrofol-N) was found to possess inferior energy resolution properties to those found for the phosphate glass track detector.