A better understanding of the background of CR-39 detectors

The background of CR-39 detectors varies from batch to batch, from foil to foil in the same batch, from one side to another of the same foil and within the same foil surface. In spite of many efforts made in the past, little success has been achieved in producing detectors with a consistently low background. For this reason, new investigations have been undertaken with the specific scope in mind to improve the background of these detectors. The key strategy of these studies was to investigate whether the background tracks originate from the detector surface or from detector bulk, if not from both. From these systematic investigations it was possible to demonstrate that most of the background is due to defects present on the detector surface. For this reason, the simplest way to reduce the background is to carry out a heavy pre-etching prior to the use of the CR-39 detector. This procedure has been successfully exploited not only to increase the signal-to-noise ratio of CR-39-based radon dosimeters but also to carry out different radon measurements with the same CR-39 foil.