The fission systematics of (15.9 MeV/u) Au ions in polymer CR-39

It has been demonstrated that high-energy heavy ions undergo fission while propagating in dielectric solids. Since these materials act as particle detectors because of their ability to retain primary ionization damage that can be fixed and enlarged with chemical etching, therefore, in principle, a complete kinematical analysis of fission events is possible. The crucial point in this regard is the availability of a well-calibrated range-energy relation, which is necessary for mass identification. We have developed an analytical method to convert the geometrical parameters of fission fragment tracks into physical parameters using an equation that expresses velocity as a polynomial of mass and range. A set of nine different polynomials was used to represent small regions of mass and range in order to improve accuracy. In the case of (15.9 MeV/u) Au ions incident normally on CR-39, we have found about 200 events which could be categorized as in-flight fission of Au ions inside the body of the detector. Mass distributions and cross sections of fission events have been calculated.