Updated on Saturday, July 04, 2009, 13:08 IST

Washington, July 04: Scientists have developed a new explosives detector with incredible sensitivity and a range of up to 100 meters that could save lives and thwart the efforts of terrorists.

The detector, developed by a team of researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, is based on photo-induced acoustic spectroscopy (PIAS).

Using PIAS, the military and law enforcement agencies will have an instrument that is one-tenth the size of competing products.

At five pounds, it is one-fifth the weight and is about one-fifth the cost of the competition.

It works by illuminating the suspected explosive with an eye-safe laser and allowing the scattered light to be detected by a quartz crystal tuning fork.

After a series of subsequent steps, the instrument is able to identify a number of explosives without jeopardising the safety of the operator.

Funding for research work into the development of the instrument was provided by the Department of Energy’s Office of Non-proliferation Research and Development and the Office of Naval Research.

ANI