Author(s)

D. P. Gupta, R. S. Chauhan, Shyam Kumar, P. K. Diwan, S. A. Khan, Ambuj Tripathi, Santanu Ghosh, V. K. Mittal

Department of Applied Sciences, Chitkara Institute of Engineering and Technology, Chandigarh, India.
Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi, India.
Department of Physics, Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra, India.
Department of Physics, Punjabi University, Patiala, India.
Department of Physics, RBS College, Agra, India.
Inter University Accelerator Centre, New Delhi, India.

The study of radiation damage of high- molecular weight substances due to MeV ion interactions is of interest for engineering and scientific applications. In the present study polystyrene (PS) was irradiated with ¹⁰⁷Ag ions of three different charge states (q) 11⁺, 14⁺ and 25⁺ and of 130 MeV energy. The emission of hydrogen from PS was monitored as a function of the incident ion fluence. The experimental results showed that the hydrogen depletion per incident ion from PS varies as qⁿ, where n was found to be 2.1 as compared to the value 2.7 to 3.0 reported in the literature. Radii of the nanometric damaged zones or ion tracks formed were analyzed from the slope of the hydrogen depletion versus ion fluence curves as a function of charge state of incident ion. These have values between 3.2 - 6.8 nm. These radii were found to depend upon the charge state of the incident ion and vary as q^m, where m has the value 0.9.

 

Polystyrene; Heavy Ions; Ion Fluence; Hydrogen Depletion Cross-Section; Track Radius

D. Gupta, R. Chauhan, S. Kumar, P. Diwan, S. Khan, A. Tripathi, S. Ghosh and V. Mittal, "Nanoscale Track Diameter and Hydrogen Yield: Dependence upon Charge State of Incident Ion on Polystyrene," World Journal of Condensed Matter Physics, Vol. 3 No. 1, 2013, pp. 95-101. doi: 10.4236/wjcmp.2013.31016.