Stand-Off Detection of Magnetic Anomalies by Circular Polarized Laser Interactions
Abstract
Project Introduction Stand off detection of trace gases will be an important advance for military force protection as well as for many civilian applications. Field operations of the US Marine Corps and other ground troops will benefit from the remote detection of hidden explosives and of hazardous gases. For these applications, the minimum distance desired is beyond the damage perimeter of an improvised explosive device and far enough away for effective response to approaching hazardous gas clouds, typically 100 meters or so. Protection of naval ships from explosive containing small boats requires somewhat longer distances for warning and proximity denial. For treaty compliance, remote detection of chemical and radioactive material manufacturing sites would also be an important advance, but will require greater distances, perhaps kilometers. Civilian applications include airport, seaport, urban and crowd security, detection of pollution from mobile sources or from smoke stacks, methane leak detection, hydrogen sulfide leak detection and other refinery and chemical plant safety requirements. Standoff distances for these applications span from meters to kilometers. This proposal addresses the development of multi layer standoff methods based on spectroscopy but with complimentary coherent detection, augmented by interactions with free electrons released from the trace species through selective excitation and ionization. These free electrons enable additional energy to be coupled into the air, creating a perturbation to the index of refraction of the air, which is detected using coherent backward lasing. Simultaneous detection of the activated free electrons by coherent radar provides a second complimentary method for detection.??
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Aug 12, 2016
- Source ID
- N000141512185
Entities
People
- Richard B. Miles
Organizations
- Office of Naval Research
- Trustees of Princeton University
- United States Navy