THE PORE OPENING PROCESS AND ITS INFLUENCE ON CONDUCTIVITY MEASUREMENTS OF IRRADIATED POLYMER-FILMS BY APPLICATION OF THE ELECTROCHEMICAL ETCHING METHOD

The technique of the electrochemical etching of irradiated polymer fil ms is an useful method to investigate structures of the track cores. T he transversale etching rate as a function of the radius, derived from the time-dependence of the radius of the etching pore, can be interpr eted as a corresponding magnitude of the degree of the damage within t he track core. In the case of polymer films irradiated by a high track density, the influence of the time distribution of the breakthroughs (pore opening process) of the etching microchannels on the conductivit y changes during the etching process is to be discussed. First represe nted results lead to statements about the statistical nature of the po re opening process.