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Fiber Optics Used To Detect Explosives
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Researchers in Australia have found that small optical fiber sensors can be used to detect explosives in concentrations as small as 6 parts per million. This breakthrough is thought to be a major advancement in the fight against terrorism.
A “fluorescent conjugated polymer” that will emit a red light when it’s illuminated by a green light will be able to detect if explosives are present based on the reduction of the red light that is emitted. This detection could be performed in a matter of a few minutes.
In traditional explosive detection scenarios it involved seeking out metals that encase the explosives, ie a land mine. In today’s more high tech explosive situations and “homemade improvised explosive devices” quite frequently have no metal and because of this a method to detect the actual explosive material was necessary.
To test the theory, researchers “created three small holes at the core of optical fibers coated with a thin layer of polymer through which explosives samples were drawn up and through the fiber holes. This allowed researchers to measure the amount of red light emitted. The technique has a high sensitivity which allows for trace amounts of explosives to be noted.
An additional study was conducted by Brigham Young researchers in which they developed a model can note differences between nuclear weapons material in image pixels from an image captured with a LWIR camera.
The fiber sensors may also be a viable option for forensic investigations involving potential explosive materials. The sensors are highly sensitive and a swab of a surface deemed to be potentially explosive, then placed in a solvent will quickly show those on site whether there are explosives present.