Introduction of a novel track counting method by thermal-neutron-induced activity measurements of 'DYECETs'

A novel track density measurement method is introduced based on thermal neutron activation of some dye elements like Bromine and Sodium in quickly dyed electrochemically etched tracks (Quick-DYECETs) in polycarbonate (PC) detectors. The 82 Br and 24 Na gamma activities measured are then related to the DYECET density and thus to the particle fluence or dose. The method seems having a good potential for large-scale automatic ECE track counting. Some results are presented and discussed in this paper.