Studies of hydrogen release effects in polymer by charged particle irradiation

The effects of hydrogen release from samples of polymer (polyethylene) irradiated with beams of 6.02-MeV 19F3+, 4.5-MeV 14N3+, 5.0-MeV 12C3+ and 3.02-MeV 4He+ were studied. An modified elastic recoil detection analysis (ERDA) using the irradiation beam itself was proposed to measure the relative hydrogen depth profile near the surface of each sample in spite of the change in the atomic densities of polymer elements induced by the beam. Variation of the relative hydrogen concentration with incident dose is represented by a decaying curve which consists of two components having the different hydrogen release cross sections. For each ion the cross section thus determined was found to be an increasing function of its electronic stopping power in the fresh polyethylene sample within the depth region tested. (author)