Use of nuclear track detection technique to study boron and nitrogen distributions in alloys

The paper is devoted to determination of boron and nitrogen in metallic mat erials by nuclear track techniques for the case of high background in radio grams. The method is based on the detection of the B-10(n,alpha)Li-7 and N- 14(n,p)C-14 reaction products with plastic track detectors exposed to a neu tron flux in a close contact with the samples analyzed. When determining bo ron, high background can arise due to fast neutron interactions with hydrog en existing in the detector material and with matrix elements of the sample . In the case of nitrogen determination, high background is usually associa ted with a presence of boron in metals and alloys, alpha tracks of which st rongly interfere with proton tracks from the N-14(n,p)C-14 reaction. The fe asibility for measurement of micro-concentrations of boron as well as nitro gen determination in the presence of boron has been studied.