US EPA

3753253 

Journal Article 

Standoff trace detection of explosives with Infrared Hyperspectral Imagery 

Fuchs, F; Hugger, S; Jarvis, JP; Yang, QK; Zaum, F; Ostendorf, R; Schilling, Ch; Bronner, W; Driad, R; Aidam, R; Wagner, J 

2015 

Unk 

Proceedings of SPIE
ISSN: 0277-786X
EISSN: 1996-756X 

SPIE-INT SOC OPTICAL ENGINEERING 

BELLINGHAM 

Proceedings of SPIE 

9467 

94672O 

English 

10.1117/12.2176361 

WOS:000357259000063 

http://proceedings.spiedigitallibrary.org/proceeding.aspx?doi=10.1117/12.2176361
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In this work we present a hyperspectral image sensor based on MIR-laser backscattering spectroscopy for contactless detection of explosive substance traces. The spectroscopy system comprises a tunable Quantum Cascade Laser (QCL) with a tuning range of 7.5 mu m to 9.5 mu m as an illumination source and a high performance MCT camera for collecting the backscattered light. The resulting measurement data forms a hyperspectral image, where each pixel vector contains the backscattering spectrum of a specific location in the scene. The hyperspectral image data is analyzed for traces of target substances using a state of the art target detection algorithm (the Adaptive Matched Subspace Detector) together with an appropriate background extraction method. The technique is eye-safe and allows imaging detection of a large variety of explosive substances including PETN, RDX, TNT and Ammonium Nitrate. For short stand-off detection distances (<3 m), residues of explosives at an amount of just a few 10 mu g, i.e. traces corresponding to a single fingerprint, could be detected. For larger concentration of explosives, stand-off detection over distances of up to 20 m has already been demonstrated. 

tunable infrared laser; quantum cascade laser; external cavity laser; standoff detection; active hyperspectral image 

George, T; Dutta, AK; Islam, MS; 

Conference on Micro- and Nanotechnology Sensors, Systems, and Applications VII 

Baltimore, MD