SAXS study on the morphology of etched and un-etched ion tracks in apatite

Natural apatite samples were irradiated with 185 MeV Au and 2.3 GeV Bi ions to simulate fission tracks. The resulting track morphology was investigated using synchrotron small angle x-ray scattering (SAXS) measurements before and after chemical etching. We present preliminary results from the SAXS measurement showing the etching process is highly anisotropic yielding faceted etch pits with a 6-fold symmetry. The measurements are a first step in gaining new insights into the correlation between etched and unetched fission tracks and the use of SAXS as a tool for studying etched tracks.