MTU Researcher Fights Terrorism
HOUGHTON, MI--A Michigan Tech researcher is exploring ways of detecting materials, especially explosives and illegal drugs with the aim of making the world a safer place. Dr. Bryan Suits of Michigan Techs Physics department has received a two-year $45,000 per year grant from the U.S. Department of Defense Naval Research Lab to continue work he began while on sabbatical at the Naval Research Lab.
Suits is exploring a technique known as nuclear quadruple resonance (NQR) to improve materials detection. NQR is closely related to techniques used in hospitals for MRIs. NQR measures the intensity of radio frequency signals from the certain atoms. "We are principally looking at the nucleus of the nitrogen atom, because it occurs in almost every explosive. It also occurs in non-explosives, but using NRQ we can look at only the compounds we want to see," he explains.
The frequencies used are very low, a few megahertz, resulting in very weak signals. Hence, it is important to develop very sensitive receivers and pick-up coils. Suits is working on different shapes, and dimensions for the pick-up coils, and experimenting with the use of a number of simultaneous receivers to obtain better performance. Possible applications for this research include luggage scanning in airports, scanning mail and in the military for searching for land mines.
"Terrorism is part of our lives," says Suits, "I'm using physics to create new ways to fight terrorism and to hopefully make the world a safer place."
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03/12/99-MTN034