Abstract
Terahertz imaging and spectroscopy has been shown to have the potential to use very low levels of this non-ionising radiation to detect and identify objects hidden under clothing at stand-off distances. In this paper we discuss some of the important factors involved in developing systems for the security industry, and describe our recent work on the development of a prototype terahertz stand-off detection system. Using this system we demonstrate the spectroscopic detection of concealed explosives at a stand-off distance of 1 m, both real time, in reflection, and under normal atmospheric conditions. We believe the technique has the potential for further development towards a practical system for the detection of suicide bombers and mobile subjects.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Auston, D.H., 1975. Picosecond optoelectronic switching and gating in silicon, Appl. Phys. Lett., 26, 101–103.
Uhd Jepsen, P., R.H. Jacobsen, and S.R. Keiding, 1996. Generation and detection of terahertz pulses from biased semiconductor antennas, J. Opt. Soc. Am. B, 13, 2424–2436.
Kemp, M.C., P.F. Taday, B.E. Cole, J.A. Cluff, A.J. Fitzgerald, and W.R. Tribe, 2003. Security applications of terahertz technology, SPIE 5070, 44.
Tribe, W.R., D.A. Newnham, P.F. Taday, and M.C. Kemp, 2004. Hidden object detection: security applications of terahertz technology, SPIE 5354, 168.
Strachan, C.J., P.F. Taday, D.A. Newnham, K.C. Gordon, J.A. Zeitler, M. Pepper, and T. Rades, 2005. Using terahertz pulsed spectroscopy to quantify pharmaceutical polymorphism and crystallinity, J. Pharma. Sci., 94, 837–846.
Mittleman, D.M., R.H. Jacobsen, and M.C. Nuss, 1996. T-ray imaging IEEE J. Sel. Top. Quantum Electron., 2, 679–692.
Pickwell, E., B.E. Cole, A.J. Fizgerald, M. Pepper, and V.P. Wallace, 2004. In vivo study of human skin using pulsed terahertz radiation, Phys. Med. Biol., 49, 1595–1607.
Wallace, V.P., A.J. Fizgerald, S. Shankar, N. Flanagan, R. Pye, J. Cluff, and D.D. Arnone, 2004. Terahertz pulsed imaging of basal cell carcinoma ex vivo and in vivo, Brit. J. Dermatol., 151, 424–432.
Smith P.R., D.H. Auston, and M.C. Nuss, 1988. Subpicosecond photoconducting dipole antennas, IEEE J. Quantum Electron., 24, 255–260.
Piao, Z., M. Tani, and K. Sakai, 2000. Carrier dynamics and terahertz radiation in photoconductive antennas, Jpn. J. Appl. Phys., 39 (Part 1), 96–100.
Smith, F.W., H.Q. Le, V. Diadiuk, M.A. Hollis, A.R. Calawa, S. Gupta, M. Frankel, D.R. Dykaar, G.A. Mourou, and T.Y. Hsiang, 1989. Picosecond GaAs-based photoconductive optoelectronic detectors, Appl. Phys. Lett., 54, 890–892.
Chen, Y., S. Williamson, T. Brock, F.W. Smith, and A.R. Calawa, 1991. 375-GHz-bandwidth photoconductive detector, Appl. Phys. Lett., 59, 1984–1986.
Tani M., K. Sakai, and H. Mimura, 1997. Ultrafast photoconductive detectors based on semi-insulating GaAs and In P, Jpn. J. Appl. Phys., 36, L1175–L1178.
Kono, S., M. Tani, P. Gu, and K. Sakai, 2000. Detection of up to 20 THz with a low-temperature-grown GaAs photoconductive antenna gated with 15 fs light pulses, Appl. Phys. Lett., 77, 4104–4106.
Baker C., I.S. Gregory, W.R. Tribe, I.V. Bradley, M.J. Evans, M. Withers, P.F. Taday, V.P. Wallace, E.H. Linfield, A.G. Davies, and M. Missous, 2003. Terahertz pulsed imaging with 1.06 μ m laser excitation, Appl. Phys. Lett., 83, 4113–4115.
Gregory, I.S., C. Baker, W.R. Tribe, M.J. Evans, H.E. Beere, E.H. Linfield, A.G. Davies, and M. Missous, 2003. High resistivity annealed low-temperature GaAs with 100 fs lifetimes, Appl. Phys. Lett., 83, 4199–4201.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2006 Springer
About this paper
Cite this paper
Kemp, M.C., Baker, C., Gregory, I. (2006). Stand-off Explosives Detection Using Terahertz Technology. In: Schubert, H., Rimski-Korsakov, A. (eds) Stand-Off Detection of Suicide Bombers and Mobile Subjects. NATO Security through Science Series. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-5159-X_18
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-5159-X_18
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-1-4020-5157-9
Online ISBN: 978-1-4020-5159-3
eBook Packages: Chemistry and Materials ScienceChemistry and Material Science (R0)