Reflection terahertz time-domain spectroscopy of RDX and HMX explosives

We report on our study of RDX and HMX, two of the most commonly used explosive materials, in bulk pellets with reflection terahertz time-domain spectroscopy in the frequency range of 0.3–3 THz. The maximum entropy method was utilized to correct our raw reflection data against the phase error due to the relative displacement between the sample and the reference. Both the refractive index n and the extinction coefficient k in the terahertz region were acquired for these two explosives without a Kramers-Kronig analysis. Both RDX and HMX exhibit a series of distinct peaks not quite detectable in the more conventional transmission-type measurements due to their high terahertz absorptivity. Our results are compared with the literature data on powder samples.