TY - JOUR
T1 - Development of an automated multisample scanning system for nuclear track etched detectors
AU - Tawara, H.
AU - Eda, K.
AU - Takahashi, K.
AU - Doke, T.
AU - Hasebe, Nobuyuki
AU - Kodaira, S.
AU - Ota, S.
AU - Kurano, M.
AU - Yasuda, N.
PY - 2008/8/11
Y1 - 2008/8/11
N2 - We have developed an automated scanning system for handling a large number of nuclear track etched detectors (NTEDs). The system consists of a magazine station for sample storage, a robotic sample loader, a high-speed wide-area digital imaging microscope device (modified HSP-1000) and PitFit software for analyzing etch pits. We investigated the performance of the system using CR-39 plastic NTED samples exposed to high-energy heavy ions and fast neutrons. When applying the system to fast neutron dosimetry, the typical scanning speed was about 100 samples/day with a scan area of 4 cm2/sample. The neutron doses obtained from a fully automatic measurement agreed closely with those from a semi-automatic measurement. These results indicate the feasibility of fully automatic scanning of CR-39 personal neutron dosimeters. The system is also expected to be applicable to future large-scale experiments using CR-39 plastic and BP-1 glass NTEDs for observing ultraheavy galactic cosmic rays with high mass resolution.
AB - We have developed an automated scanning system for handling a large number of nuclear track etched detectors (NTEDs). The system consists of a magazine station for sample storage, a robotic sample loader, a high-speed wide-area digital imaging microscope device (modified HSP-1000) and PitFit software for analyzing etch pits. We investigated the performance of the system using CR-39 plastic NTED samples exposed to high-energy heavy ions and fast neutrons. When applying the system to fast neutron dosimetry, the typical scanning speed was about 100 samples/day with a scan area of 4 cm2/sample. The neutron doses obtained from a fully automatic measurement agreed closely with those from a semi-automatic measurement. These results indicate the feasibility of fully automatic scanning of CR-39 personal neutron dosimeters. The system is also expected to be applicable to future large-scale experiments using CR-39 plastic and BP-1 glass NTEDs for observing ultraheavy galactic cosmic rays with high mass resolution.
KW - CR-39
KW - Etch pit
KW - Neutron dosimetry
KW - Nuclear track etched detector
KW - Robotic sample loader
KW - Scanning system
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U2 - 10.1016/j.nima.2008.05.035
DO - 10.1016/j.nima.2008.05.035
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:47849104301
SN - 0168-9002
VL - 593
SP - 475
EP - 480
JO - Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment
JF - Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment
IS - 3
ER -