Explosives detection using resonance fluorescence of bremsstrahlung radiation

A method for detecting explosive materials in a target, the explosive materials containing characteristically large or small amounts of one or more nuclear species of interest, comprising:

• resonantly exciting the nuclei of the target with bremsstrahlung radiation,
• resonantly exciting nuclei of one or more reference scatterers with the beam of bremsstrahlung radiation transmitted through the target, each said reference scatterer comprising one or more of the nuclear species of interest,
• measuring the intensity of photons at energies of interest scattered from each said reference scatterer in a direction or directions, said energies of interest for each reference scatterer corresponding to the spacings between the quantized energy states of the nuclear species of interest of which the reference scatterer is comprised, and
• comparing the intensities of photons at energies of interest to profiles of intensities for comparable targets not containing explosives and/or to comparable targets containing explosives to determine if the target is likely to contain explosives.

A method for detecting one or more nuclear species of interest in a target comprising:

• resonantly exciting the nuclei of the target with bremsstrahlung radiation,
• resonantly exciting nuclei of one or more reference scatterers with the beam of bremsstrahlung radiation transmitted through the target, each said reference scatterer comprising one or more of the nuclear species of interest, and
• detecting photons at energies of interest scattered from each said reference scatterer in a direction or directions, said energies of interest for each reference scatterer corresponding to the spacings between the quantized energy states of the nuclear species of interest of which the reference scatterer is comprised,
• whereby the detection of an insufficient intensity of photons corresponding to the spacings between the quantized energy states of a nuclear species of interest indicates the presence of at least a threshold amount of the nuclear species in the target.

A method for detecting one or more nuclear species in a target comprising:

• resonantly exciting the nuclei of the target with bremsstrahlung radiation,
• resonantly exciting nuclei of one or more reference scatterers with the beam of bremsstrahlung radiation transmitted through the target, each said reference scatterer comprising one or more of the nuclear species of interest,
• measuring photons at energies of interest scattered from each said reference scatterer in a direction or directions, said energies of interest for each reference scatterer corresponding to the spacings between the quantized energy states of the nuclear species of interest of which said reference scatterer is comprised, and
• estimating the abundance of each nuclear species of interest in the target from the measured intensity of photons scattered from the reference scatterer or scatterers comprising the nuclear species.

A device for detecting explosive materials in a target comprising:

• a shielded source of bremsstrahlung radiation,
• means for making the bremsstrahlung radiation incident on the target,
• one or more reference resonance scatterers positioned such that bremsstrahlung radiation transmitted through the target will be incident on said reference scatterers,
• one or more detecting apparatuses each comprising an array of individual detectors for capturing, measuring, counting, and recording the energies of photons scattered from said reference scatterers, and
• computing apparatus for accepting data from said detecting apparatuses, and for using this data to determine if the target is likely to contain explosive materials.

A device for detecting one or more nuclear species in a target comprising:

• a shielded source of bremsstrahlung radiation,
• means for making the bremsstrahlung radiation incident on the target, and
• one or more reference resonance scatterers positioned such that bremsstrahlung radiation transmitted through the target will be incident on said reference scatterers,
• one or more detecting apparatuses each comprising an array of individual detectors for capturing, measuring, counting, and recording the energies of photons scattered from said reference scatterers.