Radiation Measurements 35 (2002) 189 193

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Experimental determination of the critical angle for particle

registration and comparison with model predictions

B. D&orschel , D. Hermsdorf, U. Reichelt
Physics Department, Institute of Radiation Protection Physics, Dresden University of Technology, D-01062 Dresden, Germany

Received 17 October 2001; received in revised form 23 January 2002; accepted 6 February 2002

Abstract
The generation of visible etched tracks by charged particles is only possible if the angle of incidence is lower than a
critical angle
c . This quantity has been calculated from the bulk etch rate and the track etch rate varying along the particle
trajectory. The results for
c can be described as a function of the initial particle energy and the etching time. Surprisingly,
the energy dependence of
c at a given etching time is characterised by splitting into two branches at higher particle energies.
For example for the alpha-particle-induced tracks in CR-39, the theoretical 9ndings were tested experimentally by measuring
the etch pit axis and the detector e:ciency as a function of the angle of incidence. This test con9rmed the model prediction
c 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
for the characteristic energy dependence of the critical angle. 

Keywords: Critical angle; Track axis; Detection e:ciency; Track etch rate; Alpha particles; CR-39

1. Introduction In etch track development theory, the critical angle is

The e:ciency of a solid state nuclear track detector
(SSNTD) depends on the angle of incidence of charged
particles. Above a critical angle,
c , of particle incidence
with respect to the normal on the detector surface no track
can be made visible by the etching process and the detector
e:ciency drops to zero. For the practical use of SSNTDs
in detector physics and dosimetry, the critical angle has
to be known in dependence on the particle energy, W ,
and the etching time, t. Recently, a model for theoret-
ical description of this relationship has been developed
(D&orschel et al., 1999). The critical angle
c (W; t) can be
predicted by this model for particles of any kind and en-
ergy if the track etch rate along the particle trajectory is
known.

Presented at the 20th International Conference on Nuclear
Tracks in Solids, Portoroz, 2000.
Corresponding author. Tel.: +49-351-463-32566; fax: +49-
351-463-37040.
E-mail address:doerschel@physik.tu-dresden.de(B. D&orschel).
de9ned frequently for the beginning of the etching process
taking into account the concept of critical layer removal
(Somogyi, 1980). In contrast, the model discussed here
should predict whether a charged particle of a given energy
and a given angle of incidence can be registered by produc-
ing a visible track. Therefore, the critical layer removal was
incorporated into the de9nition of the critical angle of par-
ticle registration which is then dependent not only on the
particle energy but also on the etching time.
The calculations resulted in two ranges for the angle of
incidence where visible tracks can be registered. These ar-
eas are separated by a forbidden range where the formation
of visible tracks is impossible. The splitting of the curve
for
c (W; t) into two branches has been surprising and was
never reported before. It results mathematically from the
solution of a transcendental equation on which the model is
based.
In order to test the theoretical results, experiments were
performed for CR-39 of TASTRAK type irradiated with mo-
noenergetic alpha particles. The present paper describes the
results for
c (W; t) experimentally determined in compari-
son with the theoretical results.

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PII: S 1 3 5 0 - 4 4 8 7 ( 0 2 ) 0 0 0 5 0 - 1
190 B. D'orschel et al. / Radiation Measurements 35 (2002) 189 193
Fig. 1. Longitudinal section of an etch pit (schematically).
2. Fundamentals
The parameters describing the pro9le of an etched track
can be taken from Fig. 1. It is assumed that the track etching
starts after a delay time td necessary for exceeding the dis-
tance xd , i.e. the starting point has the ordinates x = 0 and
t  = 0. At this point the particle energy is lowered from the
initial energy, W , to W  . The latter was determined from the
stopping power function for CR-39 (D&orschel and Henniger,
2000). The depth of the etch pit below the etched detector
surface is given by

t
=ttd
L(W; t) = cos
vT (W  ; t  ) dt  vB (t td ): (1)
0 function
c (W; t) shown in Fig. 2 for alpha particle tracks
Fig. 2. Critical angle,
c , computed in dependence on the initial alpha energy, W , for an etching time of t = 6 h and a spatial resolution of
Lc = 0:4 m (D&orschel et al., 1999).
The delay time
xd cos

td = (2)
vB
is correlated with the distance xd which results from the
boundary condition
vT (W; xd ) cos
= vB : (3)
If the left term of Eq. (3) is smaller than vB , the track etching
is overtaken by the bulk etching and track formation does
not occur.
Etched tracks can be identi9ed if L exceeds a critical
depth, Lc , given by the spatial resolution of the optical eval-
uation equipment. From the boundary condition L = Lc the
critical angle
c follows as a solution of the transcendental
equation
Lc + vB [t td (W;
c )]
cos
c (W; t) =  t
=tt (W;
) : (4)
0
d c
vT (W  ; t  ) dt 
For more oblique particle incidence, etched tracks cannot
be registered. When the particle trajectories are completely
etched, further etching proceeds with the bulk etch rate, vB ,
in all directions. In this case of track over-etching starting
at the time te , the corresponding values of L and
c have to
be calculated with the substitution t td = te .
Whereas the distance of the starting point of track etching
from the original detector surface is an increasing function
of the angle of incidence, the delay time determined after
Eq. (2) shows a maximum. Its position shifts to larger
angles of incidence with increasing particle energy. The
result of this behaviour is a characteristic curve for the
 B. D'orschel et al. / Radiation Measurements 35 (2002) 189 193 191

Fig. 3. Track axis, dmin and dmax (a), and detection e:ciency,
(b), measured in dependence on the angle of incidence for an initial alpha
energy of W = 6:44 MeV.

after an etching time of 6 h and a resolution parameter
Lc = 0:4 m. At energies above 5:8 MeV, two ranges for
the angle of incidence are obtained where visible tracks
can be expected. Non-over-etched tracks correspond to the
lower values whereas over-etched tracks are characterised
by the upper values. Between both branches of the curve
, given as the number of
a forbidden range was found where the formation of
visible tracks was impossible. This curve encloses a re-
gion for pairs of variables W and
within which visible
tracks can be expected, whereas outside this area, track
registration is impossible. The computation of the function

c (W; t) was described in detail in a former paper (D&orschel
et al., 1999).
In order to test the theoretical results, experiments were
carried out using CR-39 detectors irradiated with alpha parti-
cles at variable angles of incidence. Suitable quantities mea-
surable as a function of the angle of incidence are the minor
and major axes of the etch pits, dmin and dmax , respectively,
as well as the detector e:ciency,
visible tracks to the number of particles impinging on the
detector surface. When the prediction of a forbidden range
at a higher energy is valid, these quantities have to drop to
zero at a certain angle of incidence. However, on exceed-
ing a gap they should become measurable once more with
increasing angle of incidence before a reduction to zero is
observed again.
192 B. D'orschel et al. / Radiation Measurements 35 (2002) 189 193
Fig. 4. Critical angle,
c , computed in dependence on the initial alpha energy, W , for an etching time of t = 6 h and spatial resolutions of
Lc = 0:4 and 0:7 m, respectively, compared with experimental results ().
3. Experimental basis
The detector material used was CR-39 of TASTRAK
type (Track Analysis Systems Ltd., UK) with a thick-
ness of 1 mm. The etching was performed in 7:25 N
NaOH at 70 C for 6 h resulting in a bulk etch rate of
vB = 1:73 0:05 m h1 . The detectors were irradiated
by monoenergetic alpha particles of 1.5, 4.0, 5.9, 6.2, 6.4,
8.0 and 10:0 MeV at the TANDEM accelerator of the
Rossendorf Research Centre. Reference measurements were
made by alpha spectrometry using an Si(Li) detector. The
FWHM of the peak amounted to 180 keV at W = 1:5 MeV
and decreased to 75 keV at 10 MeV. The oblique particle
incidence on the surface was achieved by mounting the de-
tectors on wedges of de9nite sloping angles. The angle of
incidence was varied between
= 0 and 80 in steps of 2 .
The angular spread of the particles beam was of the order
of 1:5 . The detector evaluation was performed using a
NIKON microscope linked with the image analysing sys-
tem (LUCIA) (Laboratory Imaging Prague, CZ). In order
to determine the critical angle for alpha particle registration
the minor and major axes of the etch pits as well as the
detector e:ciency were measured as a function of the angle
of incidence.
4. Results
Exemplary results for the etch pit axis and detector ef-
9ciencies are given in Fig. 3a and b for the alpha energy
W = 6:44 MeV. The track axis as well as the detector e:-
ciency drop to zero at
= 56 . However, above
= 71:5
tracks become visible again before they disappear at
=76 .
A similar behaviour was found for W = 5:9 and 6:2 MeV. In
contrast to that at W =1:5 and 4:0 MeV as well as at W =8:0
and 10:0 MeV, visible tracks were observed only below a
de9ned angle without a second interval where tracks appear.
Fig. 4 shows the experimental results of the critical angle
in comparison with the theoretical results. The spatial reso-
lution, Lc , for the optical evaluation equipment used could
be determined only with relatively large uncertainty. First
studies of proton tracks yielded Lc = 0:4 m whereas a later
evaluation of alpha particle tracks resulted in Lc = 0:7 m
(D&orschel et al., 1997, 1998). The theoretical curves for

(W; t = 6 h) are given in Fig. 4 for both values of Lc . A
comparison with the experimental results does not allow an
unequivocal selection of one of the two curves. The diOer-
ences between them are, however, only small and compara-
ble with the uncertainty of the experimental results.
5. Conclusions
From Fig. 4 it follows that the agreement between theo-
retical and experimental results for the critical angle is sat-
isfactory taking into account the experimental uncertainties
for W and
. The critical depth of the etch pits, Lc , necessary
for identifying the tracks was assumed until now as a con-
stant only characterising the optical resolution of the evalu-
ation equipment. However, a small variation of Lc with the
particle energy could occur because the pro9le and, there-
fore, the perceptibility of the etch pits change with varying
particle energies. The adjustment of the relationship Lc (W )
will be studied in further work.
 B. D'orschel et al. / Radiation Measurements 35 (2002) 189 193
The results obtained until now con9rm the model predic-
tion that the critical angle as a function of the particle en-
ergy cannot be described by a simple smooth curve because
the splitting into two branches exists at higher energies. The
area below this curve indicates the energy and angle range
from which charged particles contribute to the detector read-
ing. Therefore, the detector e:ciency at a given etching time
can be determined for particles with any energy and angle
of incidence using the results for
c (W; t).
References
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