Track detectors in particle accelerator environment: an overview on existing and new methods

The advent of high energy, high intensity particle accelerators, with increasing applications in various fields has lead to the involvement of more users and operators. The complex (secondary) radiation field in an accelerator environment, generated by the primary beam hitting a target, is highly directional, dynamic, pulsed and mixed in nature, which poses a unique challenge for the radiological safety aspects, specially the neutrons contributing to a significant dose even beyond the shields. Solid polymeric track detectors (SPTDs), due to their insensitivity to low LET radiations and integrating nature of signal registration, are found to be effective and convenient for neutron measurements. This paper reviews some of the existing and frequently used methods of neutron spectrometry and dosimetry using SPTDs and explores new approaches as well. The paper elaborates on the extended energy response and rapid etching techniques of SPTDs along with some new results. An overview on the recently introduced microwave-induced chemical etching (MICE) technique is also presented. (author)