Latent tracks

Colder A, Canut B, Levalois M, Marie P, Portier X, Ramos SMM (2002) Latent Track Formation in GaAs Irradiated with 20, 30, and 40MeV Fullerenes, J Appl Phys 91(9) 5853-5857... 

The nature of size distributions in etched track lengths is further complicated by the difficulty in determining the dimensions of unetched, or latent tracks. While there were some assumptions about the shape of a latent fission track (see Carlson 1990), their geometry has proven to be notoriously difficult to determine (Kobetich and Katz 1968). In a classic case of the act of observation modifying the observed property—radiolytic annealing was observed in apatite when samples were exposed to the electron beams... 

The technique has successfully been applied to the examination of nuclear membranes and the processes of etching of latent tracks in polymers. 

The latent tracks may be used both directly, for example, for creating of conducting nanowires in insulators due to the possibility of inserting any conducting material into these tracks (Fink et al. 2007), and after etching procedure with production of track-etched membranes (Chakarvarti 2009). The grafting functionalization of the ion tracks leads to the formation of highly proton-conductive electrolyte membranes for fuel cell applications (Clochard et al. 2010). 

Yoshida M, Kimura Y, Chen J, Asano M, Maekawa Y (2009) Preparation of PTFE-based fuel cell membranes by combining latent track formation technology with graft polymerization. 

Hnatowicz, V., Vacik, J., Perina, V., vor5ik, V., Rybka, V., Popok, V., Jankovskij, O., Fink, D., and Klett, R., Doping of latent tracks in polyethylene by iodine diffusion, Radiat. Meas., 25, 71-72 (1995). 

Chemical etching is the process of pore formation during which the damaged zone of a latent track is removed and transformed into a hollow channel (pore) (29, 33). The most... 

PET track etched membranes are manufactured of thin polymer films irradiated by heavy ion beam (23). Latent tracks of heavy ions in polymer material are treated by chemical ways and as a result, membranes with regular, cylindrical pores with diameter in the range 0.1-3 pm and pore density between 10 to 6x10 pores/cm are obtained (Figure 4. 4). Typical applications of PET membranes are analytical methods, water analysis, general filtration (particles and bacteria removal, chromatography sample preparation), microorganism analysis, blood filtration and microscopy (24)... 

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