At 04:30 PM 10/8/2012, mix...@bigpond.com wrote:
In reply to Abd ul-Rahman Lomax's message of Sun, 07 Oct 2012 23:56:54 -0500:
Hi,
[snip]
>These materials are not sensitive to "energetic photons," i.e., gamma rays.
Gammas are absorbed by all solid matter to some extent, during which process
energetic electrons are usually produced, which should then leave tracks.
However electron tracks are likely to be longer and narrower than
heavy particle
tracks, which combined with the low absorption rate of the gamma rays would
probably result more in a slight background "fogging" of the medium
rather than
the distinctive short tracks made by heavy particles.
That makes sense. The materials are sold, however, as not being
sensitive to gamma radiation.
My understanding is that the materials do self-heal to some extent.
It might be that those electron tracks simply are not disruptive
enough for the disruption to survive to the etch process.
"Not sensitive" does not rule out some level of "fogging" as described.
