Detecting Explosives by Use of LIBS

Rugged, field-portable units could detect explosive residues at safe distances.

Laser-induced breakdown spectros - copy (LIBS) has been investigated for potential utility as a means of detecting trace amounts of chemical explosives and residues thereof in lawenforcement, forensic analysis, and military settings. In LIBS (see figure), a laser is used to rapidly generate a microplasma of a sample, and the light emitted by the microplasma is analyzed to identify (and determine the intensities of) spectral lines of elements and compounds in the sample. In previous applications for purposes other than detection of explosives, LIBS has been shown to enable remote, rapid, multielement micro-analysis of bulk samples (solid, liquid, gas, aerosol) of compounds having concentrations in the parts-per-million range.