Response and energy spread of CR-39 for low energy protons under new etch conditions

The registration of proton tracks in CR-39 plastic track detectors has been considered a most simples and practicable method based on chemical etching.To check the response of protons in CR-39, the detectors were irradiated normally with monoenergetic proton beam in the energy range of 200 - 500 keV, obtained from Cockcroft and Walton Accelerator, installed in the Center for Advanced Studies in Physics, Government College, Lahore, Pakistan. Excellent track registration o efficiency has been found but no threshold energy limit for protons has been estimated. A linear relation between track diameter and energy of proton has been observed,. The spread in the energy in terms of track diameters agrees within the experimental error. The actual spread was measured by the calibration of Accelerator using (p,) nuclear reactions. The response of CR-39 for protons in the said energy range with different etching conditions, such as type and normality of solution, mixture of solution in different ratios and etching time and temperature has also been summarized. The results show that 3N-KOH at 70 sup/0 C has been found a most suitable etching condition for detection of 500 keV protons. (author)