Measurement of target thickness by a nuclear track technique

A new application of the nuclear track technique for the measurement of target thickness is presented here. A well collimated beam of heavy ions is allowed to penetrate through thin metal targets and the energies of the heavy ions emerging out of these targets are obtained from the maximum etchable track lengths in a suitable track detector using an energy-track length calibration curve. The target thickness is then determined from range-energy calibration plots. In this paper we discuss this track technique and highlight its scope. (author)