Registration of low energy protons in CR-39 for use in fast neutron dosimetry

Abstract This paper gives some results on the registration of protons, in the energy range from 60 keV to 727 keV, incident normally on CR-39 detectors and etched chemically in 6N NaOH at 70°C. An increase in the track diameter ‘D’ with increasing proton energy ‘E p ’, has been observed. The response function V (=V t /V g ) for different energy protons has been experimentally determined and correlated with the calculated values of ‘V’ by the polynomial V =∑ a n V n . The variation in the response function ‘V’ with the proton range ‘R’ and REL (200) function are well described by the relations V=1+aR n and V= a n(REL) n , respectively. The critical angle, ϴ c ′, calculated as a function of the proton energy E p is given by the relation ϴ c = ∑a n (1n E p ) n .