Material discrimination system

摘要

This disclosure relates to systems and methods for material discrimination. The systems and methods include a single source that generates both neutrons and photons, and a single imaging array with a common detector that detects the neutrons and the photons generated from the single source. The systems and methods allow for a determination of the contents, and/or the effective atomic number (“Z”) of the contents, of an object without physical inspection of the interior of the object.

主权项

1. A materials discrimination system comprising:
a single source that includes a single target, the single target configured to produce a beam comprising a neutron constituent and a photon constituent when struck by a deuteron, wherein the neutron constituent and the photon constituent are collinear; a single detector aligned with the single source along a path of the beam, the single detector configured to detect neutrons and photons present in the beam, and to produce a signal based on a detection of neutrons or photons, the signal being associated with a value; and a processor configured to:
receive signals produced by the single detector;distinguish between signals that represent detection of a neutron and signals that represent detection of a photon;generate a first image of a region primarily based on detection of neutrons;generate a second image of the region primarily based on detection of photons;determine different effective atomic numbers for different portions of the region based on the ratio between (i) the first image of the region primarily based on detection of neutrons and (ii) the second image of the region primarily based on detection of photons;generate the comparative image based on the determined different effective atomic numbers for the different portions of the region; andprovide the comparative image for display to an operator.