Investigation of nuclear reaction products by atomic force microscopy

The use of Atomic Force Microscope (AFM, from Corporate Head, Santa Clara, California, USA) opened a new way to study latent nuclear tracks. In our experiments we used plastic track detectors of the type CR-39 (Columbia Resin No. 39) Impinging ions with energy above a threshold of 180 keV can alter the molecular structure forming latent tracks. Since nuclear latent tracks have diameters in the range of 10 to 1000 nm, they can be visualized by AFM with a slight chemical etching (6 min in 6 n NaOH solution at 70 °C). These tracks are significant for the energy, momentum and the mass of the incoming particles. In our study, passive CR-39 detectors were irradiated by secondary particles produced bombarding ¹⁰³Rh by ¹⁶O and ¹²C in a wide range of energy (1 MeV/amu to 33 MeV/amu) at the MP Tandem generator of the Laboratorio Nazionale del Sud in Catania, Italy. The experiment was carried out in order to identify the secondary particles and to determine their density and the spatial distribution.