Utilizing plasma interaction as a novel etching technique for CR-39 nuclear track detector

This study investigates a new technique for etching solid-state nuclear track detectors (SSNDs) and compares it to the conventional chemical etching approach. The CR-39 nuclear track detector created alpha particle tracks with a 6.25 N NaOH etching solution. Revealing the ion-induced latent tracks in the material of the detector involves the inevitable step of a chemical etching process. In contrast to the conventional chemical etching approach, a new technique via plasma-induced chemical etching is presented in this study to reduce the etching time. According to the photomicrographs, for chemical etching, we observed that the tracks started appearing at 1 h and developed at 5 h. In contrast, the tracks started appearing with the plasma-induced etching method at 15 min and were fully developed at 60 min. The plasma etching process recorded higher track densities (7177.0 ± 33.7 Track/mm²) than chemical etching by water bath (5238.0 ± 5.7 Track/mm²), possibly due to its short etching time, allowing latent tracks to be revealed without increasing overlap. The bulk etch rate for CR-39 in plasma etching was faster than in chemical etching. The enhanced V_T/V_B ratio resulting from the plasma etching leads to an overall improvement in the track revelation process. The outcomes indicated that the optimum etching time for CR-39 irradiated with alpha particle energy of 5.47 MeV is 2 h for chemical etching and 60 min for plasma-induced etching. Plasma technology has shown its efficacy in the etching process by significantly reducing the time required for etching SSNDs and etching efficiency similar to that of the chemical etching method.