Handheld Terahertz Wand To Unmask Terrorists
TeraView in Cambridge, U.K., is working with U.K.-based Smiths Detection, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of X-ray security scanners, to develop a hand-held wand that will scan airport passengers with terahertz radiation in search of characteristic spectral signatures of explosives, metals, and drugs.
Though the technology will not be used to generate actual images since terahertz radiation can see through people’s clothing and may raise privacy concerns, it will be designed to set off a green or red light indicating if any matches were made.
Terahertz waves fall between microwaves and infrared on the electromagnetic spectrum. The radiation is generated by shining pulses from a powerful infrared laser onto a gallium arsenide semiconductor crystal. The technology should be installed at airports within two years.
Abstracted by the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center(NLECTC) from New Scientist (07/12/04); Graham-Rowe, Duncan .