Terahertz (THz), Mid Infrared (MIR) and Near Infrared (NIR) Technologies for Protection of Critical Infrastructures Against Explosives and CBRN

Critical infrastructures are targets for terrorism and deliver a

valuable vector through which the proliferation of CBRN and explosive

precursors can be detected. Recent technological breakthroughs,

notably in the field of near infrared (NIR), mid infrared (MIR),

Terahertz (THz) and Gigahertz (GHz) sources and detectors, have led to

rugged commercial devices, capable of standoff sensing a range of

these dangerous substances. However, at the same time criminal and

terrorist organizations have also benefited from the availability of

technologies to increase the threat they pose to the security of

citizens and a concerted effort is needed to improve early detection

measures to identify activities, such as the production of homemade

explosives or CBRN that can be potentially dangerous to society. The

key global technological bottleneck to be overcome is the current lack

of integration and networking of mature detection technology into

early warning systems for critical infrastructures. Thus, this book

brings together complementary information connecting the research of

leading teams working on critical Infrastructure protection with

academic developers and industrial producers of state of the art

sensors.