T-ray tomography

We demonstrate tomographic T-ray imaging, using the timing information present in terahertz (THz) pulses in a reflection geometry. THz pulses are reflected from refractive-index discontinuities inside an object, and the time delays of these pulses are used to determine the positions of the discontinuities along the propagation direction. In this fashion a tomographic image can be constructed.     

Terahertz single pixel imaging based on a Nipkow disk

We describe a terahertz single pixel imaging system based on a Nipkow disk. Nipkow disks have been used for fast scanning imaging systems since the first experimental television was invented in 1926. In our work, a Nipkow disk with 24 scanning lines was used to provide an axial resolution of 2 mm/pixel. We also show that by implementing a microscanning technique the axial resolution can be further improved to 0.5 mm/pixel. Imaging of several objects was demonstrated to show that this simple scanning system is promising for fast or real time terahertz imaging applications.     

Characterization of T-ray binary lenses

Multilevel phase-shift Fresnel diffractive zone plates fabricated on silicon wafers have been used as T-ray imaging lenses. The imaging results, including spatial and temporal distribution of T-rays measured at the focal planes in the frequency range from 0.5 to 1.5 THz, indicate that the performance of the diffractive terahertz (THz) lens is comparable with or better than that of conventional refractive THz lenses. The unique properties of the T-ray binary lens make it possible to fabricate excellent optics for narrow-band THz applications.     

太赫兹时域光谱技术及激光雷达光谱探测误差分析与实验验证

太赫兹波是指频率介于0.1～10 THz之间的电磁辐射,在电磁波谱上位于微波和远红外光之间。大多数生物战剂爆炸物在此波段有特征吸收。与在公共安全领域检测武器、生物战剂等危险品的传统方法相比,太赫兹辐射能量低,不会产生电离辐射,对物质可以做到高灵敏、无损伤和远距离检测。介绍了国内外太赫兹时域光谱技术在在生物战剂爆炸物检测方面的研究最新进展,并设计了一种激光雷达光谱探测与实时测量装置,以傅里叶光学与光信号处理为基础,使用楔形标准具作为分光镜,实现背景噪声去除、激光探测和光谱测量。测试结果表明,可探测激光雷达脉冲宽度为10 ns,并初步探讨了影响实验结果的几种因素,提出将激光雷达光谱探测技术与太赫兹时域光谱技术相结合,并采用现代模式识别、信号处理技术是生物化学战剂爆炸物实时光谱检测技术的发展趋势。     

T-ray computed tomography

We demonstrate a tomographic imaging modality that uses pulsed terahertz (THz) radiation to probe the optical properties of three-dimensional (3D) structures in the far-infrared. This THz-wave computed tomography (T-ray CT) system provides sectional images of objects in a manner analogous to conventional CT techniques such as x-ray CT. The transmitted amplitude and phase of broadband pulses of THz radiation are measured at multiple projection angles. The filtered backprojection algorithm is then used to reconstruct the target object, including both its 3D structure and its frequency-dependent far-infrared optical properties.     

Non-destructive quantification of pharmaceutical tablet coatings using terahertz pulsed imaging and optical coherence tomography

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) and terahertz pulsed imaging (TPI) are two powerful techniques allowing high quality cross-sectional images from within scattering media to be obtained non-destructively. In this paper, we report experimental results of using OCT and TPI for quantitatively characterizing pharmaceutical tablet coatings in the thickness range of 10-140 μm. We found that the spectral OCT system developed in-house has an axial resolution of 0.9 μm, and is capable of quantifying very thin coatings in the range of 10-60 μm. The upper limit of 60 μm within the tablet coating and core is owed to the strong scattering of OCT light, which has relatively short wavelengths in the range of 0.5-1.0 μm. On the other hand, TPI utilizes terahertz radiation that has substantially long wavelengths in the range of hundreds of microns, and thus is less prone to the scattering problem. Consequently TPI has been demonstrated to be able to quantify thicker coatings in the range of 40-140 μm and beyond. We concluded that OCT and TPI are two complementary analytical techniques for non-destructive and quantitative characterization of pharmaceutical tablet coatings.     

太赫兹时域光谱技术在危险品检测方面的应用

太赫兹波(terahertz, THz, T-ray)是指频率介于0.1～10 THz之间的电磁辐射,在电磁波谱上位于微波和远红外线之间。大多数爆炸物、毒品在此波段有特征吸收。与在公共安全领域检测武器、爆炸物、毒品等危险品的传统方法相比,太赫兹辐射能量低,不会产生电离辐射,也不会引起安全担忧。而且,太赫兹波对于衣物等大多数包装材料有很强的穿透力,对物质的检测可以做到高灵敏、无损伤和远距离,因此在反恐、毒品、安全检测等方面具有显著潜在优势。文章介绍了国内外太赫兹时域光谱技术(terahertz time domain spectroscopy, THz-TDS)在爆炸物及毒品检测方面的研究最新进展;详细讨论了黑索金(RDX)的研究现状,并初步探讨了影响实验结果的几种因素。     

一种有效提高太赫兹时域光谱装置成像空间分辨率的方法

太赫兹波成像技术一个最显著的制约因素是其有限的空间分辨率。提出通过在样品前加小孔的方法来提高传统太赫兹时域光谱装置成像的空间分辨率。采用在样品前约2 mm处加直径为0.5 mm小孔的方法使成像的空间分辨率从1.276 mm提高到0.774 mm,提高0.502 mm,约39％。通过这个简单的方法在传统的太赫兹时域光谱成像装置上实现了空间分辨率从毫米量级到亚毫米量级的提高。聚乙烯板上直径为1 mm的小孔被作为成像的研究对象,分别采用传统的太赫兹时域光谱装置对样品进行直接成像和在样品前约2 mm处加直径为0.5 mm的小孔后对样品成像两种方式,并采用损失成像中信噪比较好的能量损失成像,对比两种方式得到的样品的太赫兹像,结果显示聚乙烯板上小孔的边界加小孔后成像比不加小孔直接成像明显清晰。证实了在样品前加小孔可以有效的提高太赫兹成像系统的空间分辨率。从理论上对通过在样品前加小孔提高系统空间分辨率的方法进行了分析,指出小孔尺寸越小,系统的空间相干长度越大,空间分辨率越高,但同时太赫兹信号的强度会相应减小。该方法可以简单有效的提高太赫兹时域光谱装置成像的空间分辨率,从而进一步拓展太赫兹谱成像技术的应用领域。     

THz radiation generation in axially magnetized collisional pair plasma

We investigate the electron-positron plasma for terahertz radiation generation by two Dark Hollow Gaussian beams (DHGBs), which result in multifocal radiations quite useful for various modern applications. In this process, the ponderomotive force acts as a driver for the generation of terahertz field and the realistic situation of collisional plasma under the application of axial magnetic field reveals an efficient radiation generation. An appreciable efficiency of more than 2% is achieved for the process.     

频率步进太赫兹脉冲成像技术研究

针对太赫兹频段具有大带宽的特点,阐述了太赫兹波段进行高分辨力成像的原理,按照微波上变频的方法,将微波源通过混频和倍频方式得到太赫兹频率源;采用频率步进脉冲体制,设计和实现了220 GHz太赫兹主动成像系统;并在暗室和外场进行了分辨力测试和拉距实验,获得的纵向分辨力达4 cm,测试距离达10 m。     

Time-domain transillumination of biological tissues with terahertz pulses

We present time-domain transmission imaging of an opaque structure in pork-fat tissue obtained with a terahertz (THz) field sampling technique. Compared with imaging with near-infrared pulses, the terahertz sampling technique shows significantly enhanced contrast, as a result of low scattering. For enhanced spatial resolution, we show mid-infrared THz imaging of onion cells. Water absorption of THz pulse in muscle tissues is discussed.     

How to realize an ultrafast electron diffraction experiment with a terahertz pump: A theoretical study

To integrate a terahertz pump into an ultrafast electron diffraction (UED) experiment has attracted much attention due to its potential to initiate and detect the structural dynamics both directly. However, the deflection of the electron probe by the electromagnetic field of the terahertz pump alters the incident angle of the electron probe on the sample, impeding it from recording structural information afterwards. In this article, we studied this issue by a theoretical simulation of the terahertz-induced deflection effect on the electron probe, and came up with several possible schemes to reduce such effect. As a result, a terahertz-pump-electron-probe UED experiment with a temporal resolution comparable to the terahertz period is realized. We also found that MeV UED was more suitable for such terahertz pump experiment.     

差频可调谐太赫兹技术的新进展

太赫兹技术在最近30年来得到快速发展, 并在医学、生物、农业、材料、安检、通信、天文等领域得到广泛应用. 从太赫兹源的频谱特性可以分为窄带(单频)太赫兹源和宽带太赫兹源. 从频谱技术方面来说, 相干的宽带和窄带太赫兹谱是一种互补性关系, 具有各自的技术特点和应用范围. 宽带太赫兹谱可以用于快速获取较宽频谱范围的分子振转谱, 实现混合特征谱的快速检测或成像. 窄带太赫兹源具有很好的光谱灵敏度和分辨率, 适用于太赫兹抽运-探测、分子振转能级谱精细结构分辨 以及太赫兹远程探测和成像. 因此研制具有可调谐的高峰值功率的窄带太赫兹源是适用于探测和识别分子振转能级指纹谱的应用需求, 而差频技术是获得高功率和宽调谐窄带太赫兹源最重要的技术之一. 为了突出该技术的最新进展, 本综述引证论文仅仅限于近5 年来基于差频技术产生太赫兹波的研究进展, 分为光学激光差频源和量子级联激光器差频源两大部分. 对于光学激光差频源, 分别对目前文献报道的各种双波长差频源和太赫兹产生用的非线性晶体进行分类介绍, 并给出所采用的技术和实验结果; 对于量子级联激光器差频源, 分别介绍了量子级联激光器中的差频产生技术和波长调谐技术的最新进展. 量子级联激光器差频太赫兹源是目前实现量子级联激光器在太赫兹波段室温运转的惟一技术, 是实现小型化、窄带宽调谐和室温运转太赫兹源的新发展领域, 值得关注.     

太赫兹超材料生物传感器的应用研究进展

太赫兹（THz）波,是指频率范围在0.1～10 THz的电磁波,在电磁波谱中处于红外与微波之间。太赫兹波的光子能量相对于可见光更低,1 THz对应的能量大约只有4.14 meV,意味着这将大大减少对生物体内组织器官的辐射而引起的伤害,不会对生物分子产生电离。因此,该波段在基础科学、人体安检、危险品检测、高速通信和医学成像等领域具有重要的潜在应用价值。但在医药和生物探测的应用中,通常需要检测微量的分析物,这就需要更高的灵敏度和检测的准确度。但是现存的检测方法受到太赫兹波强度检测可靠性不高的影响。基于超材料的生物传感可以通过增强局域电磁谐振,实现亚波长分辨,大大提高了传感器的分辨率与灵敏度,引起了人们的广泛关注。超材料是一种人工设计的周期性结构,通过合理设计可以增强局域电磁谐振响应,实现亚波长分辨,大大提高传感器的分辨率与灵敏度。太赫兹超材料传感器为生物传感领域提供了一种新的检测方法,具有灵敏度高、响应速度快、无标记检测等优点。随着微纳加工技术的快速发展,制作超材料太赫兹传感器的成本不断降低,从而在生物医学领域具有非常大的潜在应用价值。基于超材料的太赫兹传感器的研究已成为目前一个非常热门的国际前沿方向。但是关于太赫兹超材料传感器的最新研究进展未见报道,为此通过大量搜集并整理相关资料,综述了太赫兹超材料传感器在各种生物探测场景中的最新应用,分别从医学诊断、食品安全、农药检测等方面展开介绍。最后,对太赫兹超材料在生物传感器的发展和应用前景进行了总结和展望。该研究将为人们充分掌握太赫兹超材料生物传感器的最新应用进展提供重要参考,同时为太赫兹超材料传感器的发展和应用提供方向性的指导。     

基于迈克尔逊干涉仪的太赫兹光谱高速探测方法研究

太赫兹光谱技术作为获取物质在太赫兹频段信息的主要方法,已经被广泛应用于物质成分的测定,而其在成分分布成像方面则有着更广阔的应用前景,例如片剂药品的有效成分检测、行李安检的危险物品检测等。现有的太赫兹光谱探测方法时域光谱技术（THz-TDS）和频域光谱技术（THz-FDS）均不能很好地兼顾光谱分辨率与扫描时间;且获得物质光谱数据往往要花费数秒乃至数分钟时间（取决于光谱仪的结构）,这对多像素成像系统显得过于迟缓,更无法达到视频成像的速率需求,严重制约了太赫兹光谱成像的实际应用。目前的太赫兹波成像多为全频段波强度成像,只能反映样品的空间分布信息,并不能反映出样品的光谱即成分信息。因此,对太赫兹光谱探测速率的提升十分迫切,太赫兹光谱高速探测的实现不仅可以显著减少物质成谱的实验耗时,还为实现物质的太赫兹光谱成分分布成像提供了可能。提出了一种基于迈克尔逊干涉仪的太赫兹光谱高速探测方法,在设计了该方法装置结构的基础上,理论分析了其工作过程,同时进行了太赫兹光谱的计算。然后从数据采样、数据处理及参数选择这几个方面进行问题分析,计算得出该方法能够显著加快物质太赫兹光谱的扫描获取速率。最后,对该方法建模进行仿真研究,模拟实现其完整的探测过程。在仿真研究中,以太赫兹辐射源的频谱分布为例,将该方法的建模仿真结果与时域光谱技术（THz-TDS）测试结果进行了对比,结果表明时域光谱技术（THz-TDS）所测得的频谱曲线可以近似看作是该高速光谱探测法所得频谱曲线的包络线,两种不同方法所得频谱结果具有较强的一致性。总之,该方法能够进行样品的太赫兹光谱探测,且在保证分辨率相同的前提下,较时域光谱技术（THz-TDS）显著加快了成谱速率,为实用、高通量太赫兹光谱成像提供了一种可能。     

基于经验模态分解提高太赫兹频率分辨率的方法

太赫兹频率分辨率是影响物质鉴别的重要因素,但是由于太赫兹时域光谱系统中存在器件反射,使得参考信号和测量信号出现多个反射峰,时域信号长度截断导致频率分辨率很低。为了去除反射峰的影响,提出基于经验模态分解去除时域反射峰,从而提高太赫兹频率分辨率的方法。通过与太赫兹主峰的互相关定位时域反射峰,计算反射峰的上下包络和求平均值,获取本征模函数并代替反射峰,增加时域信号有效长度,提高太赫兹频域分辨率。空气中水蒸汽的太赫兹透射谱实验结果表明,该方法具有自适应去除多个反射峰的能力,对太赫兹时域信号修复效果良好,频率分辨率提高了12倍,而且未丢失有用的吸收谱信息,吸收峰的位置和个数与真实谱一致,很好地保留了太赫兹谱的鉴别能力。     

基于扩散映射的太赫兹光谱识别

特征提取对于太赫兹光谱识别来说至关重要。传统方法是通过人工选取太赫兹光谱中差异性较大的吸收峰作为特征进行光谱识别,但当部分物质在太赫兹波段没有明显波峰、波谷等光谱图形特征时,这种方式便不再适用。为此,研究人员利用统计学习与机器学习方法对高维太赫兹光谱数据进行降维和特征提取。由于物质的太赫兹光谱数据各维度呈现非线性,尤其是当不同物质的太赫兹光谱曲线整体非常相似时,线性处理方法易产生较大误差。针对这一问题,提出了一种基于扩散映射(DM)的太赫兹光谱识别方法。扩散映射能在保持数据内在几何结构的同时对其进行非线性降维,提取的流形特征区分度较高,对数据还有聚类效果。首先用S-G滤波器对Alloxazine等10种物质的太赫兹光谱样本进行滤波,并用三次样条插值法对截取相同频段后的光谱样本进行统一分辨率处理;然后利用DM将高维太赫兹光谱数据映射到低维特征空间并提取太赫兹光谱的流形特征;最后用多分类支持向量机(M-SVM)对十种物质的太赫兹透射光谱进行分类。实验结果表明,相比于主成分分析(PCA)和等距映射(ISOMAP),使用DM提取的太赫兹光谱流形特征具有更高的区分度,而且DM可以直接得到太赫兹光谱数据本征维数的估计值,这为相似太赫兹光谱的快速精准识别提供了一条新的途径。     

Effects of Pumping Sizes on THz Radiation Based on Ultrashort Light Pulse Optical Rectification for High Spatial Resolution T-Ray Imaging

We present our experimental studies on the effects of the pumping sizes on THz radiation based on ultrashort light pulse optical rectification for high spatial resolution T-Ray imaging. Our experiments show that high spatial resolution T-ray imaging requires both thin THz emitter and sample, and rigorous tolerance of the gap between the sample and the emitter, as well as small pumping size which usually much smaller compared with THz wavelength. Such a small pumping size results in dramatic decrease of the THz wave power, which originates from strong diffraction of THz wave, the depolarization of the focused tightly pumping beam, the spatial filtering of the emitter exit-surface, and the strong phase-mismatching between the pumping and the high spatial Fourier components of the THz signal, rather than two-photon absorption.     

A 0.33-THz second-harmonic frequency-tunable gyrotron

Dynamics of the axial mode transition process in a 0.33-THz second-harmonic gyrotron is investigated to reveal the physical mechanism of realizing broadband frequency tuning in an open cavity circuit. A new interaction mechanism about propagating waves, featured by wave competition and wave cooperation, is presented and provides a new insight into the beam-wave interaction. The two different features revealed in the two different operation regions of low-order axial modes(LOAMs) and high-order axial modes(HOAMs) respectively determine the characteristic of the overall performance of the device essentially. The device performance is obtained by the simulation based on the time-domain nonlinear theory and shows that using a 12-kV/150_(-mA) electron beam and TE_(-3,4) mode, the second harmonic gyrotron can generate terahertz radiations with frequency-tuning ranges of about 0.85 GHz and 0.60 GHz via magnetic field and beam voltage tuning,respectively. Additionally, some non-stationary phenomena in the mode startup process are also analyzed. The investigation in this paper presents guidance for future developing high-performance frequency-tunable gyrotrons toward terahertz applications.     

Quasi-optic terahertz imaging

We demonstrate quasi-optical, diffraction-limited two-dimensional image production by means of reflected pulses of terahertz (THz) radiation. A spherical mirror is used to form a real one-to-one THz image of two 1-mm-diameter steel spheres, which is then scanned over a THz receiver. Diffraction-limited spatial (cross-range) resolution and THz pulse range resolution are simultaneously observed.