Pore growth in heavy ion-irradiated PET foils using a constructed ECE unit

A well performance Electrolytic Controlled Etching (ECE) unit has been designed and constructed in our laboratory. Low electric field strength of few volts and a 2 kHz wave signals has been applied across the electrodes that confined the 9 and 12 μm thick PET foils in the ECE unit. PET foils were exposed to fission fragments (FFS) using 252Cf source. The dependence of different measurable parameters such as FFS fluence (Φ), applied voltage (V), etching temperature (T) and etching concentration (C) on both track etch rate (VT) and breakthrough time (TB) have extensively been studied using the FFS-irradiated PET foils. Various empirical relationships connecting the results of the present work have been extracted. Moreover, the constructed ECE technique has proven to be an encouraged time saving method in the development of trusting measurements comparing with others that might involve expensive sophisticated tools. (author)