Ageing effects on polymeric track detectors: studies of etched tracks at nanosize scale using atomic force microscope

Among several different techniques to analyze material surface, the use of Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) is one of the finest method. As we know, the sensitivity to detect energetic ions is extremely affected during the storage time and conditions of the polymeric material used as a nuclear track detector. On the basis of the surface analysis of several track detector materials, we examined the detection sensitivity of these detectors exposed to alpha particles. The preliminary results revealed that the ageing effect on its sensitivity is very strong, that need to be considered on the routine applications or research experiments. The results are consistent with the experimental data in the literature.