title: High-sensitivity detection of TNT.
abstract: We report high-sensitivity detection of 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT) by using laser photoacoustic spectroscopy where the laser radiation is obtained from a continuous-wave room temperature high-power quantum cascade laser in an external grating cavity geometry. The external grating cavity quantum cascade laser is continuously tunable over approximately 400 nm around 7.3 microm and produces a maximum continuous-wave power of approximately 200 mW. The IR spectroscopic signature of TNT is sufficiently different from that of nitroglycerine so that unambiguous detection of TNT without false positives from traces of nitroglycerine is possible. We also report the results of spectroscopy of acetylene in the 7.3-microm region to demonstrate continuous tunability of the IR source.
authors.affiliation: Pranalytica, Inc., 1101 Colorado Avenue, Santa Monica, CA 90401, USA.
authors.forename: Michael B
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Pushkarsky
authors.forename: Ilya G
authors.initials: IG
authors.lastname: Dunayevskiy
authors.forename: Manu
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Prasanna
authors.forename: Alexei G
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: Tsekoun
authors.forename: Rowel
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Go
authors.forename: C Kumar N
authors.initials: CK
authors.lastname: Patel
mesh_terms: D000114:Acetylene; D000327:Adsorption; D000465:Algorithms; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D017550:Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared; D013696:Temperature; D014303:Trinitrotoluene / Q000032:analysis* / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D014303:Trinitrotoluene; D000114:Acetylene