Annealing of fission fragment tracks in CR-39 nuclear track detector — Phenomenological model

In this short paper, a new model for annealing of latent nuclear tracks is developed. Physical phenomenological picture or foundation of the model is presented using experimental spectra of 252Cf fission fragment tracks annealed at 75–175 °C for 5–30 min. Here, annealing of nuclear tracks refers to the reduction of track lengths during annealing or thermal treatment. A new annealing parameter (t/T2) is identified in the model, which is useful in understanding and analysis of annealing of nuclear tracks. In definition of the annealing parameter above, the quantities t and T are annealing time and temperature, respectively. The model allows deduction of the activation energy of annealing simultaneously from track annealing data, collected over all the annealing conditions (t, T). This model provides a quick methodology to study kinetics of nuclear track annealing. The presented model is validated using the experimental results of annealing of fission tracks in CR-39 detector. The determined value of activation energy of annealing is 0.204 ± 0.012 eV. Presented results and discussion can be extended to swift heavy ion (SHI) tracks.