Measuring depths of sub-micron tracks in a CR-39 detector from replicas using Atomic Force Microscopy

One of the challenging tasks in the application of solid-state nuclear track detectors (SSNTDs) is the measurement of the depth of the tracks, in particular, the shallow ones resulting from short etching periods. In the present work, a method is proposed to prepare replicas of tracks from α particles in the CR-39 SSNTDs and to measure their heights using atomic force microscopy (AFM). After irradiation, the detectors were etched in a 6.25 N aqueous solution of NaOH maintained at 70 °C. The etched detectors were immersed into a beaker of the replicating fluid, which was placed in a water bath under ultrasonic vibration and maintained at room temperature to facilitate the filling of the etched tracks with the replicating fluid. As an example of application, these results have been used to derive a V function for the CR-39 detectors used in the present study (for the specified etching conditions).