The effects of the Bragg curve on the nuclear track formation in CR-39 polycarbonate, with the atomic force microscopy approach

C. Vázquez-López^a, B.E. Zendejas-Leal^a, R. Fragoso^a, J.I. Golzarri^b, and G. Espinosa^b

^a Departamento de Física. Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados del Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Av. IPN 2508, Col. San Pedro Zacatenco, 07360, México, D.F. México. Tel +5255 57473800 ext. 6108; Fax: +52 55 5747 3879 e-mail: cvlopez@fis.cinvestav.mx.

^bInstituto de Física, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. Circuito de la Investigación Científica, Ciudad Universitaria, 04520, México, D.F. México.

Abstract

The etching nuclear track parameters were analyzed, using atomic force microscopy (AFM), allowing the simulation of the nuclear track profiles evolution. For these experiments, CR-39 (Lantrack^TM) was chosen, because the excellent energy response to alpha particles. Due to the AFM limitations, it was necessary to reduce the incident particle energy in order to reach the Bragg peak region in the AFM scanning process. The different profile shapes of the etched tracks were clearly observed in the evolution process.

Keywords: Etched nuclear track profiles; CR-39; atomic force microscope (AFM); etched nuclear track simulation; etched nuclear track evolution.

PACS: 24.40.Wk; 61.80.-x; 68.37.Ps

DESCARGAR ARTÍCULO EN FORMATO PDF

Acknowledgments

This work was partially supported by Instituto de Ciencia y Tecnologia del Distrito Federal, México, grant 325-2009, and PAPIIT-DGAPA-UNAM Projects IN101910 and IN103013.

References

1. F. Vaginay, M. Fromm, D. Pusset, G. Meesen, A. Chambaudet, and A. Po, Rad. Meas. 34 (2001) 123.         [ Links ]

2. D. Hermsdorf, Rad. Meas. 44 (2009) 806.         [ Links ]

3. F. Palacios, J. Ricardo, D. Palacios, E. Goncalves, J. Valin, and R. De Souza, Optics Comm. 248 (2005) 41.         [ Links ]

4. B. Dörschel, D. Hermsdorf, U. Reichelt, S. Starke, Radiat. Meas. 37 (2003) 573.         [ Links ]

5. G. Espinosa, I. Jacobson, J. I. Golzarri, C. Vazquez, R. Fragoso, and E. Santos, Rad. Protect. Dosimetry. 101 (2002) 89.         [ Links ]

6. M. Yamamoto et al., Rad. Meas. 28 (1997) 227.         [ Links ]

7. N. Yasuda, M. Yamamoto, N. Miyahra, N. Ishigure, T. Kanai, and K. Ogura, Nucl. Inst. Meth. In Phys. Res. B 142 (1998) 111.         [ Links ]

8 . D. Nikezic, J.P.Y. Ho, C . W. Y. Yip, V. S . Y. Koo, and K. N. Yu, Nucl Inst Meth in Phys Res B. 197 (2002) 293.         [ Links ]

9. I.Horcas, R. Fernandez, J.M. Gomez-Rodríguez, J. Colchero, J. Gomez-Herrero, and M. Baro, Rev. Sci. Instrum. 78 (2007) 013705. This software is free and available in www.nanotec.es site.         [ Links ]

10. J.F. Ziegler, J.P. Biersack, and U. Littmark, The Stopping and Ranges of Ions in Solids (Pergamon Press, Oxford, 1985). The code is available in http://www.srim.org.         [ Links ]

11. G. Somogyi, Nucl Instrum and Meth 173 (1980) 21.         [ Links ]

12. D. Nikezic and D. Kostic, Radiat. Meas. 28 (1997) 185.         [ Links ]

13. Î.À. Bondarenko, D.V. Melnichuk, Yu.N. Onishchuk, S.Yu. Medvedev, Morphologic analysis of SSNTD tracks based on the Huygens principle for the purpose of alpha spectrometry. https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/.         [ Links ]