Impact of x-ray dose on the response of CR-39 to 1–5.5 MeV alphas
The CR-39 nuclear track detector is used in many nuclear diagnostics fielded at inertial confinement fusion (ICF) facilities. Large x-ray fluences generated by ICF experiments may impact the CR-39 response to incident charged particles. To determine the impact of x-ray exposure on the CR-39 response...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
| Published: |
American Institute of Physics (AIP)
2017
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/111189 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4969-5571 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0489-7479 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7274-236X https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1020-3501 |
| Summary: | The CR-39 nuclear track detector is used in many nuclear diagnostics fielded at inertial confinement fusion (ICF) facilities. Large x-ray fluences generated by ICF experiments may impact the CR-39 response to incident charged particles. To determine the impact of x-ray exposure on the CR-39 response to alpha particles, a thick-target bremsstrahlung x-ray generator was used to expose CR-39 to various doses of 8 keV Cu-K[subscript α] and K[subscript β] x-rays. The CR-39 detectors were then exposed to 1–5.5 MeV alphas from an Am-241 source. The regions of the CR-39 exposed to x-rays showed a smaller track diameter than those not exposed to x-rays: for example, a dose of 3.0 ± 0.1 Gy causes a decrease of (19 ± 2)% in the track diameter of a 5.5 MeV alpha particle, while a dose of 60.0 ± 1.3 Gy results in a decrease of (45 ± 5)% in the track diameter. The reduced track diameters were found to be predominantly caused by a comparable reduction in the bulk etch rate of the CR-39 with x-ray dose. A residual effect depending on alpha particle energy is characterized using an empirical formula. |
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