Research could lead to security scanners capable of detecting explosives

Using a single pixel camera and Terahertz electromagnetic waves, a team of Physicists at the University of Sussex have devised a blueprint which could lead to the development of airport scanners capable of detecting explosives. Miss Luana Olivieri, PhD student and Dr Juan Sebastian Totero Gongora, a Research Fellow in Experimental Photonics of the Emergent Photonics Lab directed by Professor Marco Peccianti and Dr Alessia Pasquazi, have found an innovative way to capture with high accuracy, not just the shape of an object, but also its chemical composition using a special "single point" camera capable of operating at Terahertz (THz) frequencies. Although their work is mostly theoretical at this stage -they introduced a novel imaging concept named Nonlinear Ghost Imagingtheir ability to capture a more detailed image to previous studies has landed them a prestigious front-page feature of the scientific journal, ACS Photonics. Dr Juan Sebastian Totero Gongora said: "Our approach produces a new type of image which is quite different from what you would get from a standard single-pixel camera as it provides much more information on the object. Compared to prior single pixel images, we also demonstrated that our resolution is inherently higher." Lying between microwaves and infrared in the electromagnetic spectrum, Terahertz radiation has a much larger wavelength to visible light. It can easily penetrate several common materials like paper, clothes and plastics leading to the development of technology within security scanning and manufacture control which allows people to see inside objects and wrapping.