CR-39 nuclear track detector response to inertial confinement fusion relevant ions

Abstract

The detection properties of CR-39 were investigated for protons, deuterons, and tritons of various energies. Two models for the relationship between the track diameter and particle energy are presented and demonstrated to match experimental data for all three species. Data demonstrate that CR-39 has 100% efficiency for protons between 1 MeV and 4 MeV, deuterons between 1 MeV and 12.2 MeV, and tritons between 1 MeV and 10 MeV. The true upper bounds for deuterons and tritons exceed what could be measured in data. Simulations were developed to further explore the properties of CR-39 and suggest that the diameter–energy relationship of alpha particles cannot be captured by the conventional c-parameter model. These findings provide confidence in CR-39 track diameter based spectroscopy of all three species and provide invaluable insight for designing filtering for all CR-39 based diagnostics.