Patent ID: 8248600
Filing Date: 2012-08-21
Classification: G01J,G01N

Abstract:
1. A method of non-invasive security screening of unknown contents within a container to determine one or more characteristics of the contents, comprising: performing non-invasive security screening for a container containing unknown contents, said non-invasive screening of the container and its contents being performed without opening the container for said screening, said non-invasive screening comprising: directing a probe light beam through a wall of said container and through said contents to a sample region within said contents, the intersection of said probe light beam and the wall defining a delivery region; collecting light scattered out of said beam within said sample region along a collection path not containing said delivery region; detecting one or more Raman spectral features of said collected light; and analyzing said one or more Raman spectral features to determine said one or more characteristics of said unknown contents, wherein in said collected light, spectral characteristics of said unknown contents are stronger than spectral characteristics of the container, and wherein spectral characteristics of the container are stronger than spectral characteristics of said unknown contents in light that is scattered out of said beam within said contents, along a path containing said delivery region.