Hi Dears,
One of the methods used to develop and see the latent tracks registries in the solid state track detectors with optical microscope is the chemically etching of them by some heating devices ; water bath, microwave , ultrasound and plasma . some articles also refer to the ability of using electron microscope to compute the tracks without etching.
Dose this method is now used, is there any research in this field can anyone send it to me?
We did some research of surface tracks of multicharged ions at Kharkiv University, Ukraine back in 1980s. In some materials heavy ion tracks are big enough to see them in electron microscope by shadowing the surface with thin metal island films. Tracks are also visible by absence of metal islands at the place of ion incidence. Look for articles of Ya. E. Gegusin, I. V. Vorob'eva and V. E. Monastyrenko. What tracks are you researching?
Dear Dr. Vladimir,
First of all I'm grateful for answering my question; I have a project about study the track density of alpha particles in solid state nuclear track detectors, some books says that these tracks can be viewing and calculated by electron microscope without etching the detectors as when using optical microscope, so I search about a research or article about viewing tracks with E.M. .
Dear Nada,
Alpha particles do not make tracks I referred to, they do not have enough charge. The only way to see surface tracks is to etch them chemically or thermally, or to agitate plce of impact by some other way. Electron microscope is useful when you hawe high density of tracks, which would overlap if etched to the sizes seen in an optical microscope. Also, you need to shade the surface with metal island film to see the small surface tracks. Nada, where do you do your study? My e-mail is [email protected]
Dear Vladimir,
Thank you for interesting, well after I read some old articles about viewing alpha tracks registered in solid state nuclear track detectors by electron microscope, I thought to do a project on comparing alpha track density viewing by optical microscope after etching the detectors with the track density viewed directly by electron microscope, but unfortunately I did not find any research about in order to know how can I prepare the detectors for electron microscope.
Dear Nada,
We used transmission electron microscopy. The objects to view were thin carbon or plastic films. In some cases, these films were replicas from the surface of bulk solid specimens. Attenuation with metal island films was used to visualize surface and track profiles. Tracks were not etched. You probably, are interested in slightly etching the surface of bulk specimens to reveal tracks and then examining them with scanning electron microscope. For that you need to prepare the surface by evaporating layer of metal on it. To be able to visualize track pits, they need to be bigger than the thickness of the metal layer. Consult with electron microscopists on how to prepare your specimens.
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