SAN DIEGO - A laser that could detect roadside bombs potentially impeding the deadliest weapon used against U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan has been developed, according to researchers in Michigan.
Marcos Dantus leads the Michigan State University research team and told Fox 5 Tuesday the laser is both sensitive and selective. It has the capability to canvas large areas and detect explosives.
“It turns out that detecting explosives in the open air in the field and public spaces is very, very difficult because there's a very large number of different compounds,” said Dantus. “So you don't know is this the explosive or just something that looks like it.”
Dantus said if the laser they’ve developed detects an explosive. The user can be 100 percent sure it is an actual explosive, he added.
Dantus said the laser uses very short pulses to detect the molecule in the target. He said the laser can distinguish explosive molecules even in quantities as small as a fraction of a billionth of a gram. It also uses no more laser intensity than that found in a Power Point presentation laser. He told Fox 5 he is hopeful it will soon save lives.
“I don't think this will be the ultimate explosive sensor for everything but if in at least one application this becomes a method that can be used to prevent the loss of life, I think that that would be really fantastic,” Dantus said.
The laser still needs to be field tested in the U.S. and then again in the locations it would potentially be used. Dantus’ team is currently seeking funding for that. If that’s secured, the technology would take about a year to deploy to Iraq and Afghanistan.
