Photonics for Detection of Chemicals, Drugs and Explosives

Abstract

Detection of chemicals, drugs and explosives is a relevant task for countering terrorism and organized crime by preventing their effects on airports, land borders, seaports, through the whole supply chain or in mass transit, as in metro or railway stations.Photonics and spectroscopic techniques are commonly used to retrieve information on atomic and molecular energy levels, molecular geometries, chemical bonds, interactions of molecules, and related processes. For their capacity to investigate at structure of the matter level these technologies are deemed an excellent instrument for safety and security protection, inspection and investigation.Even if threat is changing continuously and photonic systems may not work properly in certain circumstances, it makes sense to continue to invest in photonics, since photonics remains one of the best means to investigate molecular structures of compounds; for this reason, photonic sensors are nowadays considered as the first detection technology for hazardous materials as explosive compounds.