A new method of material identification has been developed utilising pixellated X-ray diffraction (PixD) to probe the\r\nmolecular structure of hidden items. Since each material has a unique structure, this technique can be used to\r\nââ?¬Å?fingerprintââ?¬Â items and has significant potential for use in security applications such as airport baggage scanning. The\r\npixellated diffraction technique allows two distinct forms of diffraction, angular-dispersive and energy-dispersive X-ray\r\ndiffraction, to be combined, exploiting the benefits of both. Thus, fast acquisition times are possible with a small\r\nsystem which contains no moving parts and can be easily implemented. In this work, the capability of the system to\r\nidentify specific materials within a sample is highlighted. Such an approach would be highly beneficial for detecting\r\nexplosive materials which are concealed amongst or inside other masking items. The technology could easily be\r\nadded to existing baggage scanning equipment and would mean that if a suspicious item is seen in a regular X-ray\r\nimage, the operator of the equipment could analyse the object in detail without opening the bag. The net result\r\nwould be more accurate analysis of baggage content and faster throughput, as manual searching of suspicious\r\nobjects would not be required.
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