The Utility of X-ray Dual-energy Transmission and Scatter Technologies for Illicit Material Detection

X-ray devices have demonstrated the ability to characterize a material at the molecular and atomic levels. This ability is particularly important for detecting plastic explosives, where object shape information cannot be used. X-ray devices are relatively inexpensive compared to many other detection technologies. X-ray technology is considered as the technology for detecting illicit materials. Using x-ray technology, a material’s densityand effective atomic number or Zeff-related information can be determined. In theory, an illicit material can be identified using those two pieces of information.