Swelling and structure of radiation induced near-surface damage in CR-39 and its chemical etching

Systematic measurements of swelling of CR-39 nuclear track detector (NTD) due to irradiation with fission fragments and alpha particles over a wide range of fluences from ²⁵²Cf are presented here. Precisely designed and optimized exposure and chemical etching experiments were employed to unfold the structure of radiation induced surface damage. Delays in the startup of the chemical etching of latent tracks in low radiation fluence detectors are measured and are found to contain important information about structure of the surface damage. Simple atomic scale pictures of radiation induced surface damage and its chemical etching are developed using measurements of radiation induced swelling of CR-39 detectors and nuclear track parameters. The computer code SRIM2010 was utilized for the calculations of basic features of latent tracks of fission fragments and alpha particles in CR-39. Another computer code TRACK_VISION was used to compute parameters of etched tracks. Computations and experimental findings in the paper coherently compose a realistic picture of radiation damage.