A METHOD OF AUTOMATICALLY COUNTING FISSION TRACKS

The present invention relates generally to the task of automatically counting the fission track density in a prepared crystal. Two images are captured by a charged coupled device (CCD) (16) attached to a microscope (14). The first or reflected light image (18) is of the surface of the crystal (12), the light captured by the CCD (16) having been reflected from the crystal surface. The reflected light image (18) is a RGB image of a prepared crystal of mica (12) containing surface voids corresponding to etched fission tracks. The second or transmitted light image (24) is of a plane near the surface of the crystal (12). The transmitted lighting image (24) is generally the same view as the reflected light image (18). A fission track void can be detected by comparing the reflected light (18) and the transmitted light (24) images. This comparison of the reflected light and the transmitted light images is best achieved using a computer software program, although this can also be done by a person comparing the images side by side or visually superimposing one on top of the other.