Application of a lidar-type gamma-ray tomography approach for detection and identification of buried plastic landmines

The efficiency is studied of some applications of a recently developed lidar-type gamma-ray tomography approach for non-destructive evaluation of dense media. The approach consists in time-to-range resolved detection of the Compton returns from the probed object (irradiated by annihilation gamma-photon sensing beams) and data processing based on a lidar-type equation and intended for determination of the extinction and backscattering profiles along the line of sight. The concrete purpose of the work is to reveal by statistical modeling the capabilities, under Poisson noise conditions, of investigating underground layers and detecting low-contrast ingredients such as plastic landmines in soil. The results from simulations show that the method is capable of finding and identifying down to 5 % density-contrast ingredients in soil, at depths to 20 cm, with spatial resolution of 1 to 10 mm, for measurement time of 10 to 1000 s and activity of the gamma-ray source of 50 - 300 mCi. So, the method could be successfully used for examination of ground for landmines.