In the last few years, a number of researchers including our collaboration have assembled databases of terahertz (THz) time-domain spectroscopy (TDS) absorption spectra from bulk explosives. While this was a necessary and important step in demonstrating the feasibility of THz TDS for explosives detection, the goal of our research is to demonstrate selectivity of THz spectra from the clutter of background spectra coming from the substrate such as soil or sand. We have investigated THz TDS reflection spectra from sand with different grain sizes as well as from metallic powders in order to distinguish between the signals reflected from the rough surfaces compared to distributed reflections at finite depths in the granular material. With marker materials such as tartaric acid, which have absorption features in the 1-2 THz range, we have investigated the reflection spectra of granular substrates with marker chemicals, and compared this to reflection and transmission spectra of solid materials prepared in polyethylene sample pellets. In principle, the same experiments can then be performed using TNT, RDX, HMX and PETN, which all have characteristic features in the 0.5-8 THz frequency range. Absolute molecular absorption coefficients can be measured as well, and we include here preliminary values for RDX. A full analysis will be reported elsewhere.
