Using Spectroscopy Principles To Detect And Identify Explosive Materials At A Distance

A European consortium has been selected to develop an explosive detection system that will detect and identify a wide variety of explosive materials and their footprints.

By Benno Oderkerk, CEO, Avantes

Since the terrorist attacks in New York (2001), Madrid (2004), and London (2005), the search for a device that can easily detect explosives has taken a big step forward. The European Union funded the OPTIX project, in which Indra Sistemas S.A. (Spain), the University of Malaga (Spain), FOI (Swedish Defense Research Agency, Sweden), EKSPLA UAB (Lithuania), Avantes BV (The Netherlands), the Technical University of Clausthal (Germany), the Vienna University of Technology (Austria), the University of Dortmund (Germany), and Guarda Civil (Spain) participate.

The aim of the project, which began in November 2008, was to contribute to the safety of European citizens by developing a transportable system for the standoff detection and identification of explosives in real scenarios at distances of around 20 meters. The system will have a detection time of less than 60 seconds, a reliability of over 90% (with less than 3% false alarms), and 95-percent accuracy in identifying explosives. To accomplish this, alternative or simultaneous analysis is conducted by three complimentary optical technologies — laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS), Raman spectroscopy, and infrared (IR) spectroscopy.