Investigation of the favorable etching time of CN-85 nuclear track detector.

The favorable etching time of alpha tracks registered in CN-85 solid-state nuclear track detector was explored by chemical etching heated by three different techniques: the classical water bath, unconventional microwave, and ultrasound techniques. The parameters that affect the etching of the tracks, namely the rate of bulk etching (VB ), the rate of track etching (VT ), the ratio of track etching (V), the critical angle (θc ), and the registration efficiency (η), were determined. The favorable etching times to develop the highest number of registered tracks in CN-85 irradiated with alpha particles emanated from a 241 Am source was found to be 30, 10, and 20min for water bath, microwave, and ultrasound heating techniques, respectively. The obtained results showed the track density possesses the highest value when the detector was etched by different heating techniques: ultrasound, water bath, and microwave heating technique respectively. As well as, the etching time was faster when the etching was done by microwave, ultrasound, and water bath. Moreover the results might also showed that the etching parameters (except ƟC ) are maximum with using microwave, ultrasound, and microwave, respectively.