AN APPROACH TO STUDY DAMAGE/TRACKS IN SOLID STATE NUCLEAR TRACK DETECTORS THROUGH TRACK- ANNEALING- INDUCED REPAIR OF DAMAGE IN A STATISTICAL FRAMEWORK

Abstract

Passage of charged particles results in latent tracks/damage in insulating solids that arise from energy loss of charged particles in their interactions with the atoms and electrons of the target medium. Since the energy loss depends on the charged particle parameters viz. charge and energy, the latent tracks can be examined for the purpose of charged particle identification. Mechanism of track formation in insulating solids also called Solid State Nuclear Track Detectors has remained a key area of interest and research. Many track formation mechanisms have been suggested. It is also known that annealing of irradiated samples results in track repair or track erasure besides also that understanding of annealing phenomenon and mechanism in more details is likely to result in more accurate information about the mechanism of track formation, the two processes visualised as being reciprocal processes on the same route. In the present work, track annealing has been studied in a statistical framework and an approach has been developed to compare activation energy of annealing process in different parts of the track with annealing time and temperature as variables. This enables us to compare stability of damage in different parts of the track. Such information, since it enables to look into the track the way it is constituted, is more likely to throw useful information with regard to track formation mechanism.