Thickness dependence verification of electrochemically-etched polymer track detectors

Electrochemical etching (ECE) is extremely instrumental for amplifying charged particle tracks in polymer detectors, in particular polycarbonate, for radiation protection dosimetry and other applications. The rationale is high efficiency track enlargement to point observed by the unaided eyes. Many physical and chemical parameters control the ECE efficiency among which polymer thickness and applied voltage, i.e. field strength at a certain frequency, highly affect the detection efficiency and track diameter responses. Alpha particles of ∼0.3 to ∼3.0 MeV energy with fixed fluences of 104 tracks cm−2 were studied in 250, 500, 750 and 1000 µm thick polycarbonate under 50 Hz - 32 kV cm−1 fixed field strength in order to further verify the Mason and Smythe equations. The flat alpha detection efficiency and track diameter versus thickness responses for alpha energies studied under fixed field strengths are in good agreement with Smythe equation, i.e. all thicknesses can be equally applied if field strength is fixed.