Energy-dependent etching-related impacts on CR-39 alpha detection efficiency for the Rn-222 and Rn-220 decay chains

CR-39 detectors are widely used to measure environmental levels of Rn-222, Rn-220 and their progeny. Prior research reported the CR-39 detection efficiency for alpha particles from Rn-222, Rn-220 and their progeny under a variety of etching conditions. This paper provides an explanation for interesting observations included in that work, namely that the critical incidence angle decreases with the increasing particle energy and the detection efficiency for 8.78 MeV alpha particles is zero. This paper explains these phenomena from a consideration of the interaction of alpha particles with the CR-39 detectors and the physics of etching dynamics. The proposed theory provides a rationale for an approach to optimizing the etching conditions of CR-39 detector for measuring Rn-222, Rn-220 and their progenies.