Abstract. Fast and reliable identification of liquids is of great importance in, for example, security, biology and the beverage industry. An unambiguous identification of liquids can be made by electromagnetic measurements of their dielectric functions in the frequency range of their main dispersions, but this frequency range, from a few GHz to a few THz, is not covered by any conventional spectroscopy. We have developed a concept of liquid identification based on our new Hilbert spectroscopy and high- T_c Josephson junctions, which can operate at the intermediate range from microwaves to THz frequencies. A demonstration setup has been developed consisting of a polychromatic radiation source and a compact Hilbert spectrometer integrated in a Stirling cryocooler. Reflection polychromatic spectra of various bottled liquids have been measured at the spectral range of 15–300 GHz with total scanning time down to 0.2 s and identification of liquids has been demonstrated.

Print publication: Issue 11 (November 2009)
Received 17 July 2009, in final form 20 August 2009
Published 20 October 2009