Microphotometry as a tool for automatic scanning of solid state nuclear track detectors.

By use of a scanning microphotometer the light transmission with both dark field and bright field illumination was determined as a function of the alpha-track density on cellulose nitrate detectors. The so obtained calibration curves allow a rapit measurement of the number of tracks per field and, thus, of the dose rate. To illustrate the application of the method, a scan of a detector exposed on a bone section of a rat injected with 241Am is presented.