Detection threshold control of CR-39 plastic nuclear track detectors for the selective measurement of high LET secondary charged particles

Detection of alpha particles from 7Li(p,α)4He and 19F(p,α)16O reactions induced by laser-accelerated protons using CR-39 with potassium hydroxide-ethanol-water etching solution

Alpha particles generated by ⁷Li(p,α)⁴He and ¹⁹F(p,α)¹⁶O reactions are selectively detected in the presence of abundant primary protons by reducing the proton sensitivity of CR-39 using a potassium hydroxide-ethanol-water (PEW) etching solution. These nuclear reactions are induced in a LiF crystal using the laser-accelerated protons (4 × 10¹¹ protons/pulse with a maximum energy of 3.3 MeV) generated and accelerated by the interaction of a 40-fs laser pulse with a polyethylene thin film target at a peak intensity of 5 × 10¹⁹ W/cm². Subsequent etching of the CR-39 in the PEW solution (KOH: 17 wt. %; C₂H₅OH: 25 wt. %; H₂O: 58 wt. %) permits the selective detection of 4.0 MeV alpha particles, which is independently confirmed by an experiment using alpha particles from an ²⁴¹Am source. The described method is expected to be useful for research into nuclear reactions in laser plasma.