Effects of etching time on alpha tracks in solid state nuclear track detectors

Solid State Nuclear Track Detectors (SSNTDs) are used extensively for monitoring alpha particle radiation, neutron flux and cosmic ray radiation. Tracks in SSNTDs formed by radiation particles, are normally etched for about 4 h to enable microscopic analysis. This study examined the effect of etching time on the appearance of alpha tracks in SSNTDs. Etching times of 2 to 4 h were compared and marked differences were noted in resultant track area. The median equivalent diameters of tracks were 20.2, 30.2 and 38.9 μm for etching at 2, 3 and 4 h respectively. Our results indicate that modern microscope imaging can detect and image the smaller size tracks seen for example at 3 h etching time. Shorter etching times have the potential to improve accuracy in assessing the number of tracks as this may result in fewer coalescing tracks.126