Sensitivity of LEXAN polycarbonate to mass differences in the iron peak

A systematic study of LEXAN response to mass differences for Z = 26 ions is presented. Over thirty iron tracks from Berkeley Heavy Ion accelerator have been characterized by a single parameter, namely its mean residual range. A semiempirical function relating etch-rate to restricted energy loss has been fitted to the experimental points and subsequently used to establish a charge and mass scale. It is concluded that an isotopic resolution better than σsub(A) = approximately 2 cannot be achieved with non-sensitized LEXAN. (author)