Int. J. Appl. Radiat. lsot. Vol. 35, No. 2, pp. 111-116, 1984 0020-708X/84 53.00+0.

00
Printed in Great Britain. Pergamon Press Ltd

Critical Angles of Etching of

CR-39 Track Detectors
H A M E E D A. K H A N , R E I N H A R D B R A N D T * , N A E E M A. K H A N
and K H A L I D J A M I L

Nuclear Engineering Division, Pakistan Institute of Nuclear Science & Technology (PINSTECH),
P.O. Nilore, Rawalpindi, Pakistan

(Received 20 January 1983; in r~ised form 5 April 1983)

The critical angles of etching of CR-39, the latest member of the SSNTD family have been determined
for a number of light and heavy charged particles, having a wide spectrum of energies. It has been observed
that the critical angles increase with the decreasing value of the parameter, Z~/pz of the charged particles.
The results are expected to be useful in experimentscarried out for the measurement of absolute emission
of charged particles in nuclear reactions, and for the determination of reaction cross-sections.

1. Introduction ies. Two different approaches were made for the

Critical angle of etching (0c) is an important param- determination of critical angles.
eter in the field of Solid State Nuclear Track De- In the first approach, method of "direct mea-
tection, eu It is of great significance when one is surement" was used. A number of small pieces of
dealing with the quantification of the emission of CR-39 were positioned on an aluminium backing in
different types of charged particles in nuclear reac- such a way that the surfaces of these detectors were
tions. The parameter is particularly useful for the subtending different angles with the incoming beam
determination of reaction cross-sections and the an- of charged particles. Light charged particles were
gular correlations using planer SSNTD/2~ Some ex- decelerated to different energies by using a wedge of
periments have already been carried out for the degraders with a systematically varying thickness.
determination of critical angles of glass- and plastic- The exposed detectors were etched in 6N solution of
track-detectors for heavy charged particles like fission N a O H kept at 70 + IC. The track densitiesand the
fragments.'4~ Very little work has been done for the etch-pit dimensions were obtained at various incident
determination of 0r for ions such as ~-particles/41 angles. The angular interval in which the tracks fail
CR-39, the newly introduced plastic track detector to produce etchable latent damage trails were located
has been found to be sensitive to both heavy and light and then finally narrowed down so that to determine
charged particles, c ~ Some work has been reported on the exact values of the critical angles. Using this
the determination of the critical angle of etching of technique, the critical angles of etching for protons
CR-39. 4~However, a lot more work is yet to be clone and :,-particles with energies, E ~ 10MeV/n, were
for finding the critical angles of etching of this determined.
extremely useful detector for a variety of charged In the second approach, highly energetic
particles in a widely varying energy range. The (E ~< I07 MeV/n) light and heavy charged particles
present paper summarizes the experiments we carried were allowed to fall perpendicularly to the stacks of
out for the determination of these angles for both CR-39 detectors. Different detectors of one particular
light and heavy charged particles, having a wide stack received particles of varying energy. The ex-
spectrum of energies. For comparison's sake, the posed detectors were etched and the etch pit channels
0:values so obtained have been used to compute the were broken apart so that their profiles could be
track registration and development efficiency of CR- studied using a Scanning Electron Microscope
39 for different types of particles under varying (SEM). Using this technique, the cone angles of the
exposure conditions. etched channels were experimentally determined.
Knowing that the cone angle is twice the critical angle
of etching, accurate values of the critical angles were
2. Experimental Details obtained.
CR-39 detectors, obtained from Homalite Cor-
3. Results and Discussion
poration, U.S.A. were employed in the present stud-
Figure 1 shows the variation of cone angle/critical
* Permanent address: Kerchemie, F.B. 14, Phillipps angle of etching and the track registration efficiency
Universitit, 3550-Marburg (Lahn), FRG. (in 2~-geometry exposures) for protons in the energy
III
112 ~ A. KHANet al.

125"

Ib
70
too. Go~"

c S
~ g
2 Detector : CR-39,Hon~lite
t

0 (q
I)
,8c --
v~ et c~n(J$
*"
O
~
\ -
q~e d ~ !4o
o
>,

--~ so- ~.
- 30 e
m c

o ,+ i z C
w
o~ 25" %, ~
o

' 9 I0 "~
fh
k"

0 ~ 0
I 2 3 4 .5 6 7 8 9 K~

Proton energy (MeV)

Fig. !. Variation of cone angle (6), critical angle of etching (0c), and the track registration efficiency, ~7
(for 2n-exposures) of the CR-39 track detector as a function of protun tmergy. The error bars on 0~-values
represent only statistical errors.

range of 1.2-10.0MeV. The registration efficiency The respective distributions indicate that the cone
was calculated by using the following equation; (2J) angles/critical angles of etching, gradually increase
with increasing energy of protons. On the other hand,
r/(efficiency in 2n-geometry)= 1 - Sin 0c (1) the track registration efficiency decreases with an

,0 %, --'9O
i
I g
I E
I g
o~
30 I ~ Critical angle of e t c h i n g , 8 c ,~S 80 k
O4

c
Q
"O
I.
.o
~ 20 - 70

o
=.
" I Detector : C R - 3 9 , Homolite
I c
_
- -1
o

E
.o 10 60 m

Track re~listration efficiency, ~t

t [ I l I, I I I,, l b-
0 I 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

[nerQy of : particles (MeVln)

Fig. 2. Dependence of the critical angle of etching (~) and the track registration efficiency, r/of CR-39
plastic track detector on the energy of ~-particles.
 160- i o n s 12C-ions

(a) (e)

(f)
!b)

\ (cj)
/
(c)

(h)

(d)
(j)

Fig. 3. Set of SEM-photomicrographs showing the profiles

of the etched-channels due to '60- and ~:~-ions in Homalite
CR-39 track detector. The energies of the particles re-
sponsible for various etch-pits are as follows: (a)
107 MeV/n; (b) 24.5 MeV/n; (c) 5.6 MeV/n; (d) 4.7 MeV/n
of ~O ions; and (e) 86MeV/n; (f) 65MeV/n; (g)
31.6MeV/n; (h) 3.TMeV/n; (j) 2.6MeV/n of 12C ions. A
gradual decrease in the cone angle with decreasing energy of
the particle is quite evident.

113
 Critical angles o f etching o f C R - 3 9 115

= 5o~- \
0, o',\ c=~ io
-- 40 - X. oo D
i
k
. %. tM

.E
. 30 - [ Detector: ] ~ .... T 60
. 1CR-39, Homolite ]
11) ~c -
"'o 20 y J " 4O ~
o

._~
o tO

I I "! I I I I I I I ! I ! I I111
too 2 3 4 5 6 789K~ 2 3 4 5 6 709102
I--
Energy of "SO ions ( MeV/n )
Fig. 4. Variation of "0~" and "q" as a function of total energy of 'q3-ions, in the CR-39 plastic track
detector.

increase of proton energy in the presently studied exposed detectors in u.v. atmosphere. Our pre-
energy range. liminary investigations in this direction have yielded
Experiments similar to those described for protons some positive results.
were performed in order to get the values of the Figure 3 is a set of photomicrographs showing the
critical angles of etching of CR-39 for varying energy profiles of etch pits due to varying energy ions of 'sO
~-particles. The results for six different energies of and "C (obtained from CERN-SC). The critical
u-particles have been summarized in Fig. 2. The angles obtained from these experiments have been
efficiency value in the energy range of plotted in Figs 4 and 5. The figures also show the
1.0-10.0 MeV/n for ~-particles is comparable to that track registration efficiencies. A systematic increase in
obtained for 1.2MeV protons. However, for the efficiency with decreasing energy of m2Cand *q3
~-particles with energies lower than 1.0 MeV/n, the ions is quite evident. One interesting feature of these
efficiency value is much higher than that for 1.2 MeV results (Figs 4 and 5) is that ~eO and *2C:ions with
protons. It is worth mentioning at this juncture that energies as high as 80 MeV/n manage to produce
the above determined values for the track registration etchable damage trails.
efficiencies of CR-39 for high energy u-particles and In order to construct a common curve for different
protons can be further improved by keeping the types of charged particles, the parameter Z~/I$ z was

6O 120
m

8' 50 D e t e c t o r : C R - 3 9 , Homolite ~//

v

== 4o 80
~ ~ . ~ 1
m
3O 6O
.2
o

"-- io
u P
| | I I | liil I t f I I IIII
O
i00 2 3 4 S 678910 t 2 3 4 5 6789i02 2

Energy of ~ZC ions ( M o V / n )

Fig. 5. Variation of "0c" and "~'" of CR-39 with the energy of '2C-ions.
A.R.I. 35/2.--C
116 ~ A. KHANet al.

3fi-

.<
30 IOC v
P
@

"0 25- @
Critical angle, 8= '~* ~;~
20-- 80 cq
e.
Detector: [ .c
e.
u CR-:59, HomaliteJ
o 15-- 70 .e
o
.u
e_ Efficiency , 9 @
~= I0" 1 6O
o
o
g ~0 .~-
5
.3

I I I I I Illll I -

io z 2 3 4 5 ~ 7e9~ 3 4 5 6789104
I-
o

2
( Z,ff / B )
Fig. 6. Dependence of "0=" and "#" of CR-39 plastic track detector on the parameter, (Z~r/~:') of charged
particles, h~ving a wide spectrum of charges and energies.

computed for both light and heavy charged particles.
The variations of critical angle of etching and the
track registration efficiency as a function of Z~/fl 2
have been shown in Fig. 6. The distributions seem to
lie on smoothly varying curves.
AcknowledgementsmThe authors would like to thank our
colleagues at the Nuffleld Cyclotron (Birmingham) and at
CERN (Switzerland) for their invaluable help in target
exposures. Thanks are also due to Mr K. M. Akhtar, Head
of Engineering Division for many useful discussions.
Financial support to one of us (HAK) by the Alexander Von
Humboldt (AVH) Foundation is gratefulfily acknowledged.

4. Conclusions
The above results can be summarized as follows:
(1) In general, the critical angles of etching of the
CR-39 detector increase with increasing energies of
protons, =-particles and other charged particles;
(2) CR-39, though a highly sensitive detector has
:only about 55% efficiency (in 2n-exposure geometry)
for the registration of 1.2 MeV protons. The higher
energy protons have lower efficiency values;
(3) CR-39 is sensitive enough to register even
intermediate energy ions of 12C and 160;
(4) The critical angles of etching decrease with
increasing values of the parameter Z ~ / f l 2.
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747-754.
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