Stand-off detection of surface contaminations with explosives residues using laser-spectroscopic methods

Laser-spectroscopic methods have a high potential for the remote detection of surface contaminations with residues of explosives, since they can operate contactless, fast and sensitive. Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy are two versatile methods which can be employed to identify a wide variety of materials and for which stand-off operation has been demonstrated. Since both methods provide complementary spectroscopic information while using a similar instrumentation they can be combined to further increase the selectivity and sensitivity as necessary for security applications.