Detecting Stochastic Nuclear Quadrupole Resonance Signals in the Presence of Strong Radio Frequency Interference

Abstract

Nuclear quadrupole resonance (NQR) is a radio frequency (RF) spectroscopic technique, allowing the detection of many high explosives and narcotics. In practice, NQR is restricted by the low signal-to-noise ratio of the observed signals, a problem further exacerbated by the presence of strong RF interference (RFI). The current literature focuses on the use of conventional, multiple-pulsed NQR (cNQR) to obtain signals. Here, we investigate an alternative method called stochastic NQR (sNQR), having many advantages over cNQR, one of which is the availability of signal-of-interest free samples. We exploit these samples forming a matched subspace-type detector, able to efficiently reduce the influence of RFI. Further, many of the ideas already developed for cNQR, including providing robustness to uncertainties in the assumed complex amplitudes and exploiting the temperature dependencies of the NQR spectral components, are recast for sNQR. The presented detector is evaluated on both simulated and measured trinitrotoluene (TNT) data.