Characterization of some commercial polymers for the detection of massive cosmic ray particles

Abstract

A particular brand (CENTURY de'Smat, India) of overhead projector (OHP) film has been exposed to α-particle and fission fragments from 252Cf natural source in order to investigate its detection efficiency and charge sensitivity in comparison to the standard detector CR39, applying solid state nuclear track detection (SSNTD) technique. The results obtained indicate that these OHP films cannot detect particles with Z / β ≤ 35, but particles with Z/β ∼ 900 -1600 can be detected. The composition of the OHP film was determined. The high detection threshold identifies this particular material as a suitable candidate for setting up a large area array of detectors, aiming at the search of rare massive cosmic ray particles at mountain altitudes.