Grant Ashleigh, Wilkinson T J, Holman Derek R, Martin Michael C
Advanced Light Source Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 1 Cyclotron Road, Berkeley, California 94720, USA.
Appl Spectrosc. 2005 Sep;59(9):1182-7. doi: 10.1366/0003702055012618.
Analysis of fingerprints has predominantly focused on matching the pattern of ridges to a specific person as a form of identification. The present work focuses on identifying extrinsic materials that are left within a person's fingerprint after recent handling of such materials. Specifically, we employed infrared spectromicroscopy to locate and positively identify microscopic particles from a mixture of common materials in the latent human fingerprints of volunteer subjects. We were able to find and correctly identify all test substances based on their unique infrared spectral signatures. Spectral imaging is demonstrated as a method for automating recognition of specific substances in a fingerprint. We also demonstrate the use of attenuated total reflectance (ATR) and synchrotron-based infrared spectromicroscopy for obtaining high-quality spectra from particles that were too thick or too small, respectively, for reflection/absorption measurements. We believe the application of this rapid, nondestructive analytical technique to the forensic study of latent human fingerprints has the potential to add a new layer of information available to investigators. Using fingerprints to not only identify who was present at a crime scene, but also to link who was handling key materials, will be a powerful investigative tool.
指纹分析主要集中于将纹路图案与特定人员进行匹配，以此作为一种身份识别形式。目前的工作重点是识别在人员近期接触某些物质后留在其指纹内的外部物质。具体而言，我们采用红外光谱显微镜来定位并确切识别来自志愿者潜在人类指纹中常见物质混合物的微观颗粒。基于其独特的红外光谱特征，我们能够找到并正确识别所有测试物质。光谱成像被证明是一种自动识别指纹中特定物质的方法。我们还展示了使用衰减全反射（ATR）和基于同步加速器的红外光谱显微镜，分别从过厚或过小而无法进行反射/吸收测量的颗粒中获取高质量光谱。我们认为，将这种快速、无损的分析技术应用于潜在人类指纹的法医研究，有可能为调查人员增添新的信息层面。利用指纹不仅识别出谁出现在犯罪现场，还能关联谁接触了关键物质，这将成为一种强大的调查工具。
