Problems in track measurement

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 structural anisotropy of apatite (Sudarsanan and Young 1978, Hughes et al. 1989, 1990) affects the annealing properties of tracks lying in different crystallographic 

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