Em. Awad et Hm. El-samman, Activation energy of etching for CR-39 as a function of linear energy transfer of the incident particles, RADIAT MEAS, 31(1-6), 1999, pp. 109-114
In this work, we have studied the effect of the radiation damage caused by
the incident particles on the activation energy of etching for CR-39 sample
s. The damage produced by the incident particle is expressed in terms of th
e linear energy, transfer (LET). CR-39 samples from American Acrylic were i
rradiated to three different LET particles. These are N (LET200 = 20 KeV/mu
m) as a light particle, Fe (LET200 = 110 KeV/mu m) as a medium particle an
d fission fragments (ff) from a Cf-252 source as heavy particles. In genera
l the. bulk etch rate was calculated using the weight difference method and
the track etch rate was determined using the track geometry at various tem
peratures (50-90 degrees C) and concentrations (4-9 N) of the NaOH etchant.
The average activation energy Eb related to the bulk etch rate vb was calc
ulated from In vb vs. 1/T. The average activation energy Et related to the
track etch rate vt was estimated from In vt vs. 1/T. It is shown that activ
ation energy of etching is a constant value for CR-39 detector where Et was
found to be independent on the damage produced by the incident particle.