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Chapter 6

THz Wave 3D Imaging and Tomography


THz waves are transparent to most of the dry dielectric materials. This property
makes THz wave a promising candidate for nondestructive evaluation of the inter-
nal structures of targets. THz wave time-of-ight imaging method is one of the
techniques to extract the information about the layered structures of a target. If there
is no layer structure within the target, or if the interesting features are not located on
those layer structures, one needs to use tomographic imaging techniques to extract
those interesting information [1].
T-Ray Computerized Tomography
Initially, Computerized tomography (CT) technique was developed for X-ray imag-
ing, and currently is used in medical diagnostics and other nondestructive evaluation
applications. Figure 6.1 illustrates the concept of CT. Collimated X-ray beam trans-
mits through the target and the transmitted intensity is recorded. The transmission
of the X-ray beam through different paths dened by lateral position and angles is
obtained by rotating and laterally shifting the target. For each beam path, the inten-
sity of transmitted beam is determined by the integral absorption along the optical
path. If the absorption distribution of the target is dened as f(x,y,z), then the total
absorption along the path with rotation angle , height z and lateral displacement
l is described as
p(,l,z) =
_
L(,l,z)
f (x,y,z)dl (f (x,y,z), (1a)
where L(,l,z) denotes the beam path through the target. The transmission T and
absorption p of the beam path are dened as
T = exp
_
_
_

_
L(,l,z)
f (x,y,z)ds
_

_
exp [ p(,l,z)]. (1b)
127 X.-C. Zhang, J. Xu, Introduction to THz Wave Photonics,
DOI 10.1007/978-1-4419-0978-7_6, C
Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2010
128 6 THz Wave 3D Imaging and Tomography
Fig. 6.1 Concept of
computerized tomography
(CT). Intensity of carrier
wave beam is recorded after
transmission through the
target with certain lateral
shifts and rotation angles.
Inverse Radon transform
of the recorded signal gives
3D information of the target
Equation (1) is known as the Radon transform [2]. The Fourier transform of
Equation (1) gives
P(,,z) =
_
p(,l,z) exp (il)dl
=
__
exp [ i(x y)]f (x,y,z)dxdy.
(2)
Here v is lateral spatial frequency, which indicates the spatial resolution of the
CT imaging process. =vsin() and =vcos() are spatial frequency components
along the x and y direction, respectively. Equation (2) indicates that, Fourier trans-
form of the Radon transform is equivalent to 2D Fourier transform of the absorption
distribution.
CT image directly measures transmission of the carrier wave corresponding to
each beam path. To get the 3D structure of the target, Equations (1) and (2) are used
to calculate the spatial distribution of the absorption, f(x,y,z), in the target
f (x,y,z) =
_ _
P(,v,z) exp
_
2i(x cos +y sin )
_
dd
=
_ _ _
P(,l,z) exp (il) exp
_
2i(x cos +y sin )
_
dldd.
(3)
This equation is called the reverse Radon transform. Reverse Radon transform of
the beam path absorptions at height z gives cross section image of the target at the
height z. The above process is repeated for all different heights to obtain the cross
section images at the different heights. These different cross section images provide
the 3D structure of the target.
Unlike X-ray imaging, which provides only the intensity information, the THz
wave imaging provides both the intensity and the phase information. The THz CT
enables one to obtain the absorption and the refractive index information of the
target. An experimental setup of THz wave CT system is presented in Fig 6.2. To
ensure the spatial resolution, THz beam is focused onto the target using either an
off-axis parabolic mirror or a lens. The focal spot size determines the spatial reso-
lution of the CT image, while its depth of focus should be at least as long as lateral
dimensions of the target. Therefore, the focusing conditions of THz beam needs to
T-Ray Computerized Tomography 129
Fig. 6.2 Experimental setup of THz wave CT. THz wave is focused with an off-axis parabolic mir-
ror onto the target. Temporal waveform of THz pulses transmitted through the target is recorded.
The target is driven by a rotation stage and a linear translation stage. THz waveform at each rotation
and lateral transition position is recorded
be well considered so that it provides sufcient depth of focus along with the high
spatial resolution. In order to obtain a tomographic image, the target is set on a rota-
tion stage which is able to rotate about the z axis and the target moves along l and
z directions by a 2D translation stage. Thus, the target is scanned in three dimen-
sions corresponding to variables of z, l and . Another off-axis parabolic mirror
collects the transmitted THz waves and a THz wave detector records its temporal
waveform.
Refractive index of the materials can be approximately treated as 1 for almost
all common materials when performing X-ray CT. As a result, X-ray beam can
be treated as a simple straight line without any beam bending in the CT process.
However, different materials may have different refractive index in THz band. For
example, refractive index of plastic is 1.5, of glass is 2, and of semiconductor
materials could be as high as 34. As a result, refractive behavior of THz wave may
not be negligible in CT process unless specic conditions are satised. Further, the
wavelength of THz wave is usually comparable to spatial features of the target, such
as textures, or microstructures, thus diffraction and scattering of the beams may also
affect propagation of THz wave through the target. To reconstruct the THz wave
tomographic image using Equation (3), the materials refractive index should have
slow variation within a THz wavelength, otherwise, ray-tracing techniques need to
be used in order to correctly retrieve 3D image of the target. In pulsed THz wave
tomography, the entire THz waveform is recorded. Different physical quantities can
be used to represent different features of the target. For example, the amplitude of
transmission provides absorption coefcient, the phase delay represents refractive
index of the target and the spectroscopy provides the composition information of
the target.
Polystyrene foam material has very low absorption coefcient (<0.001 cm
1
@
1 THz) and almost constant refractive index (n = 1.02) for THz waves, especially
for THz wave with relatively low frequency. Thus, it qualies to be a very good
material to be used to investigate optical properties of THz waves. Figure 6.3 shows
a photo of a target made from a piece of polystyrene foam that was used for THz
130 6 THz Wave 3D Imaging and Tomography
Fig. 6.3 Photo of a target
used in THz wave CT
imaging process. Cubic
polystyrene foam is carved
with THZ through its
height
wave CT process. Three letters T, H and Z were carved in the target. Since
there is no change in z direction, the cross section at z = z
0
reects the full 3D
information of the target. In order to obtain the image, the sample was driven along
the x-axis by a linear stage. For each x position, the sample was rotated within a
range of = 0180

with an interval of 1.8

. Imaging system recorded the THz


waveform for each x and . Figure 6.4 shows 3 THz waveforms recorded in the
experiment. Those waveforms were obtained for the lateral displacement x = 0,
and rotation angles of 0

, 60

and 120

, respectively. Both amplitude and position


of peak in THz waveform vary for different beam paths. Figure 6.5a shows time
delay of THz pulses in the x space. In the frequency domain, time delay of THz
pulses corresponds to the phase delay. Figure 6.5b gives the phase distribution at 1
THz (the central frequency of THz pulses) in the x space. Using time delay to
replace absorption in Equation (3), the 3D image of the target can be reconstructed
according to its refractive index distribution. Figure 6.6 shows the retrieved cross
section image of the target of Fig. 6.3. The prole of target and the carved letters are
reconstructed due to refractive index difference between air and polystyrene foam.
Similarly, the phase distribution in the frequency domain can be used to retrieve 3D
image of the target and the result is very similar to Fig. 6.6. Further, one can also
use variation of THz amplitude to retrieve the absorption coefcient (or extinction
coefcient) distribution of the target. The image based on amplitude attenuation of
THz wave is less sharp due to scattering of the waves by the target.
When the sample is scanned in the vertical direction along with the lateral scan-
ning and rotation, the cross section of the target can be obtained for each height
that provides a true 3D image of the target. To save the scanning time, single pulse
detection method discussed in Chapter 3 can be used to record THz waveforms.
Figure 6.7 presents cross sections images of a ping-pong ball recorded by THz wave
CT at different heights. When all these cross sectional images are combined the
THz wave CT retrieves cavity structure of the ping-pong ball, which is presented
in Fig 6.8. The cavity structure of the ping-pong ball can be clearly seen in the
T-Ray Computerized Tomography 131
Fig. 6.4 Temporal waveforms of THz pulses transmitted through the target at 0

, 60

and 120

,
respectively. THz pulse propagation through the target following different path does not only lead
to different absorption, but also gives different phase delay. The phase delay reects refractive
index distribution of the target
Fig. 6.5 The distribution of physical qualities in a THz wave CT measurement presented in x
space. (a) Distribution of THz peak timing, and (b). distribution of phase delay at 1 THz
THz wave CT; however, the thickness of the retrieved shell is much thicker than
the real one. This is due to the fact that the physical model of THz CT is based on
gradual change of refractive index; however, the real target has a sharp change at
boundaries of the shell. Further, the shell of the ping-pong ball has relatively high
refractive index and the Fresnel losses at its surface are not negligible. The Fresnel
losses also affect the image quality. Figure 6.9 shows an optical photo of a piece
132 6 THz Wave 3D Imaging and Tomography
Fig. 6.6 3D image of the
target reconstructed via
inverse Radon transform of
the peak timing distribution
in the x space
of dry and defat turkey bone and the corresponding THz CT image [3]. The optical
photo only shows prole of the bone, while THz CT image shows the prole as well
as the central cavity structure. However, there are rich microstructures in the bone,
which are not retrieved in THz CT image. The inability of reconstruction to resolve
microstructure is because the CT algorithmrequires that the target has lowscattering
and absorption, which are not satised for the turkey bone. The heavy scatter-
ing by those complicated microstructures reduces image quality of the retrieved
image.
Spatial resolution is the most important feature for an imaging system. The def-
inition of spatial resolution may vary from one imaging system to anther system.
If the imaging system is diffractive limited, the Rayleigh criteria is the most com-
monly used denition. For THz CT imaging, however, structure or composition of
the target may become a dominant factor affecting the spatial resolution. As a result,
a more practical denition of spatial resolution is commonly used in study of THz
wave CT. It is dened as the smallest distance between two spots that can be dis-
tinguished in the retrieved image. Figure 6.10 shows photos of a cylindrical sample
made using polystyrene foam. The sample contains eight holes with a diameter of
2.5 mm each and two slots with 2.5 mm width. The smallest distance between two
holes lying on the line AA is 0.5 mm. Figure 16.11a gives the reconstructed cross
section image of the sample using THz CT. The image indicates that THz CT pro-
vides a spatial resolution of at least 0.5 mm, because even the closest holes are
distinguishable in the image. Ray approximation used in the reconstruction does
not consider the diffractive behavior of THz wave limited by the imaging system
aperture. In reality, the measured phase change is an involution between the sample
T-Ray Diffraction Tomography 133
Fig. 6.7 THz wave CT images of a ping-pong ball
caused phase delay and the diffraction effect. Using Wiener lter, the diffraction
induced phase change can be removed from the THz CT image to obtain the pure
sample information. Figure 6.11b shows the enhancement in the sharpness of the
structure of the target obtained by applying Weiner lter on the image in Fig. 6.11a.
T-Ray Diffraction Tomography
Diffraction phenomenon plays a strong role in THz wave imaging due to the rela-
tively long wavelength of THz waves. Interaction between THz wave and the target
can be described by the following Maxwell equation [4]:
134 6 THz Wave 3D Imaging and Tomography
Fig. 6.8 3D image of the
ping-pong ball cavity
Fig. 6.9 Photo of a turkey bone (left) and its THz wave CT image (right)

2
E +
(r)(r)
c
2

2
t
2
E +[ ln (r)] ( E) +[E ln (r)] = 0, (4)
where r denotes a position in space, c is the speed of light, (r) and (r) are
the complex permittivity and permeability of the material, respectively. If the
variation of both and is small within a wavelength, the above equation can
be simplied to
T-Ray Diffraction Tomography 135
Fig. 6.10 Side view and top view of a target used in THz wave CT. The target is made of
polystyrene foam
Fig. 6.11 (a) THz wave CT cross section image of the target shown in Fig. 6.10 (b) the cross
section image with Wiener lter applied

2
E +
n(,r)
2
c
2

2
t
2
E = 0 (5)
.
Here n =

is the complex refractive index of the target. If polarization effects


of the EM wave are negligible, the vector equation can be further simplied to the
Helmholtz scalar equation:
136 6 THz Wave 3D Imaging and Tomography

2
u(r) +k
2
0
n(,r)
2
u(r) = 0, (6)
where k
0
=2/ is the wave number of EM wave in vacuum and u(r) is the complex
amplitude function of the electric eld. In an imaging process, u(r) can be described
as the sum of two components: u(r) = u
0
(r) + u
s
(r), where the former is electric
eld of EM wave which does not penetrate through the target or is a solution to the
equation
_

2
+k
2
0
_
u
0
(r) = 0, (7)
while the later is the electric eld of EM wave after transmission through the target.
If the target modulates only phase of the EM wave, the electric eld can be
written as
u(r) = exp [(r)] = exp [
0
(r) +
s
(r)], (8)
where is the complex phase of the electric eld. Assuming that the scattering
induced phase shift changes slowly, Equation (7) can be further simplied using the
rst order Rytov approximation to

s
(r) =
1
u
0
(r)
_
G(r r

)V(r

)u
0
(r

)dr

, (9a)
where G(rr

) is a Green function [5] and is described as


G(r r

) =
exp
_
ik
0

r r

_
4

r r

(9b)
and V(r) is dened as
V(r) = k
2
0
[ n
2
(,r) 1]. (9c)
Compared to optical waves, diffraction of THz pulses shows its unique prop-
erties. The THz pulse contains broadband spectrum and its interference pattern is
generated by sum of all frequency components. Figure 6.12 illustrates an experi-
mental setup of Youngs double slit interference measurement for THz wave. In this
experiment, the sample was a 0.17 mm thick aluminum foil with double slits of
width 1 mm each and the distance between those two slits being 6 mm. The dis-
tance from the double slits plane to the THz wave detector was 48 mm. Since THz
pulse has a short pulse width, its interference pattern also varies in time. The num-
ber of peaks and valleys in the interference pattern increases with time delay. This
T-Ray Diffraction Tomography 137
Fig. 6.12 Experimental setup of THz wave Youngs double slit measurement. The double slits are
carved on 0.17 mm thick aluminum foil with width of 1 mm each. The distance between those two
slits is d = 6 mm the distance between the double slit and the detection crystal is D = 48 mm
phenomenon indicates that, after THz pulse pass through the double slits, lower fre-
quency components propagate faster than the higher frequency components. Figure
6.13a shows the evolution of THz wave interference pattern along the direction per-
pendicular to the double slits. Figure 6.13b shows position of peak and valley in
Fig. 6.13a, which presents the wavefront propagation of THz wave starting from
each slit.
a
b
Fig. 6.13 The temporal evolution of THz eld along x axis. (a) experimental result, and (b) the
normalized electric eld (according to peak of THz waveform)
138 6 THz Wave 3D Imaging and Tomography
Fig. 6.14 The concept of
diffraction tomography (DT).
The carrier wave in DT
measurement is a plane wave.
Wavefront of the carrier wave
is recorded after propagation
through the target, and which
is used to retrieve 3D image
of the target
In THz diffraction tomography, a planar THz wave is used to illuminate a target
and the targets structural information is extracted by measuring and processing the
diffracted THz distribution by the target. Figure 6.14 shows the concept of diffrac-
tion tomography using a monochromatic wave. The light source in a diffraction
tomography is a plane wave. The THz wave is detected in a detection plane per-
pendicular to its propagation direction after transmission through the target. The
Fourier transform of the forward scattered electric eld of the THz wave on the
detection plane is proportional to 3D Fourier transform of the object function in a
displaced hemisphere in the frequency domain. The displacement value equals to
a negative incident wave number along the incident wave direction. Consequently,
reverse Fourier transform of the measurement result leads to the object function. In
THz CT, one needs to record THz eld of an entire beam; however, in THz DT, THz
wave distribution in the detection plane needs to be resolved. This can be achieved
by using the 2D imaging technique discussed in Chapter 3. In THz DT set up, THz
waves are generated from a point emitter via optical rectication process excited
by high intensity fs laser pulses. The generated THz beam is collimated by a off-
axis parabolic mirror and illuminates the entire target which is placed on a rotation
stage. The forward scattered THz beam from the sample and the optical probe beam
propogate collinearly through the EO crystal. This probe beam records the 2D dis-
tribution of the THz diffraction formed on the EO crystal. The 2D image of the
target is obtained for each rotation angle by recording the forward scattered wave
detected using a large aperture EO crystal. Figure 6.15 shows a target made of three
plastic rectangular bars used in THz DT. If the target modulates only the phase of
THz wave, the rst order Rytov approximation can be used to reconstruct the 3D
image:
u = u
0
ln
_
u
s
u
o
+1
_
(10)
.
3Dimensional Imaging Using Fresnel Lens 139
Fig. 6.15 Photo of the target in THz wave DT (left) and its top view illustration (right). The target
consists of 3 plastic bars
Figure 6.16a gives a reconstructed refractive index distribution of the sample
shown in Fig. 6.15 and the Fig. 6.16b shows the reconstructed image presented in
3D. The image is reconstructed based on 0.2 THz component.
The purpose of imaging is to obtain an image that closely resembles the target and
provides the maximum structural information of the target. Therefore, the quality of
image is evaluated by calculating similarity between the target and its reconstructed
image. The imaging quality of THz wave tomography is dened as a normalized
cross correlation function between a target and its image [6, 7]:
Q =

M,N
i,j=0
[O(i,j) O][I(i,j) I]

M,N
i,j=0

O(i,j) O

M,N
i,j=0

I(i,j) I

, (11)
where i,j are the pixel index, O is the object function of the target, O is mean of
O, I is the reconstructed image function and I is its mean value. Figure 6.17 shows
image quality of THz DT image presented in Fig. 6.16 as a function of the THz wave
frequency. For low frequency wave (<0.2 THz), the imaging quality is relatively low
due to the diffraction limited spatial resolution. At higher frequency range (> 0.45
THz), the imaging quality is limited by the lower Signal to noise ratio. Thus, the
imaging quality of the THz wave diffraction tomography increases with frequency
until 0.2 THz and has a plateau between 0.2 and 0.45 THz and further decreases
with the frequency.
3Dimensional Imaging Using Fresnel Lens
A Fresnel lens is a Fresnel zone plate with phase or amplitude patterns formed
by series of concentric circles. The Fresnel lens manipulates the optical wave via
140 6 THz Wave 3D Imaging and Tomography
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3Dimensional Imaging Using Fresnel Lens 141
Fig. 6.17 The image quality
of THz wave DT as a function
of THz wave frequency
diffraction and interference. Fresnel lens can be considered as an example of diffrac-
tion optical components. Compared to traditional optical lens, Fresnel lens is more
exible in design and fabrication. Further, it can be much thinner than refractive
lens with same aperture and focal length and thus can replace large aperture lens
in order to reduce the weight. Binary Fresnel lens are fabricated by photolithogra-
phy and etching on a transparent disk to make phase modulation features. N circles
of photolithography and etching gives L = 2
N
levels of phase modulation depth.
Figure 6.18 shows pictures of three THz wave binary Fresnel lens fabricated on an
intrinsic silicon wafer. Levels of those lenses are 2, 4, and 8, respectively. Figure
6.18 illustrates the diffraction patterns of THz pulses focused by these three lenses.
Diffraction of THz wave by Fresnel lens along z-axis (normal of the lens) is [8]
u(z) =

n
A
n
_ _
exp
_
i2
_
n
r
2
p
+
1
2z
_
(x
2
+y
2
)
_
dxdy, (12)
where n = 1, 2,. . .., A
n
= sin c(n/L). r
2
p
is Fresnel zone of the lens with the
dimensions of area and indicates a zone area where the phase delay is constant. For
an incident plane wave, its focal spot is located at
z
n
=
r
2
p
2n
, n = 1,2,...... . (13)
Equation (13) indicates that Fresnel lens has a very high chromatic dispersion and
its focal length is inversely proportional to the wavelength of the incident wave.
Equation (13) also shows that a Fresnel lens has multiple orders of focal spots for
a monochromatic plane wave. The diffraction efciency for its focal point of each
order is
142 6 THz Wave 3D Imaging and Tomography
Fig. 6.18 THz wave Fresnel lenses made on silicon wafer with a level of 2 (a), 4 (c), and 8 (e),
respectively. The corresponding THz wave intensity distribution at the focal plane (b, d, and f)
(n) |A
n
|
2
= sin c
2
(n/L). (14)
Equation (14) indicates that the lower order of focal spot gives the higher diffraction
efciency. Table 6.1 summarizes the diffraction efciency for the rst order focal
spot of those three silicon based Fresnel lenses. An aluminum zone plate is used as
comparison.
3Dimensional Imaging Using Fresnel Lens 143
Table 6.1 Diffraction efciency of the rst order focal spot for Fresnel lenses with different binary
levels
L
Diffraction efciency 2 4 8 Al zone plate
Calculated result (%) 41 81 95 41
Experimental result (%) 11 75 90 38
Fresnel lens can focus on a plane wave and image the target like a refractive lens
and follows the following lens formula:
1
d
0
+
1
d
1
=
1
F
. (15)
Where d
0
is the distance between the lens and the object and d
1
is the distance
between the lens and the image and F is the focal length. When Fresnel lens is
used to process image, its rst order focal length is usually used for the highest
diffraction efciency. Combining Equations (13) and (15), one has the following
formula giving the object distance.
d
0
=
r
2
p
d
1

2d
1
c r
2
p

, (16)
where is frequency of the THz wave. Equation (15) indicates that, in an imaging
system, if the imaging plane is xed, images made by carrier waves with different
wavelengths reect prole of target at different longitudinal location. In pulsed THz
wave imaging process, the entire THz waveform is recorded. A Fourier transform
of the measured THz waveform provides the frequency dependent response of the
Fresnel lens. Figure 6.19 shows that the focal length of a Fresnel lens increases
with THz wave frequency. Thus, the linearly frequency-dependent focal length of
a Fresnel lens allows tomographic imaging of a target using multiple frequencies.
Objects at various positions along the beam propagation path are uniquely imaged
on the same imaging plane using a Fresnel lens at different frequencies of the imag-
ing beam. This procedure allows the reconstruction of an objects tomographic
contrast image by assembling the frequency-dependent images, providing a new
tomographic imaging modality. This becomes extremely useful when both the tar-
get and the imaging geometry cannot be moved during the experiment. Figure 6.20
shows amplitude of THz pulses after being focused by a Fresnel lens [9]. It shows
an interference pattern due to interference between different frequency components.
The dispersion induced aberration leads to a low imaging quality.
The Fresnel lens induced THz wave tomographic imaging setup is similar to the
2D THz wave imaging system discussed in Chapter 3, except that the 30 mm diame-
ter silicon based Fresnel lens replaces the imaging lens. This binary lens has a focal
144 6 THz Wave 3D Imaging and Tomography
Fig. 6.19 The rst order
focal length of a Fresnel lens
as a function of THz
frequency
Fig. 6.20 The axial evolution of THz amplitude focused by a Fresnel lens
length of 2.6 cm at 1 THz. By scanning the time delay between the THz and opti-
cal probe beam, a temporal waveform of the THz wave at each pixel on the image
plane was recorded using a CCD camera. Fourier transformation of the temporal
waveforms provides the THz eld amplitude (or intensity) distribution on the image
plane at each frequency. The measured two-dimensional THz eld distribution at
each frequency provides images of the THz eld transmission of a target at each
corresponding position along the z-axis. Figure 6.21a, b, and c show illustration of
3Dimensional Imaging Using Fresnel Lens 145
Fig. 6.21 Illustrations of three targets used in Fresnel lens based THz wave tomographic imaging
(a), (b), and (c). Their images made with THz wave at different frequencies (d), (e), and (f)
three objects used in the pulsed THz wave tomographic imaging system. The three
targets (OU, OC and OT) were made from 2 mm thick polyethylene sheet with the
dimensions of 60 by 40 mm with three different shapes carved on these three sam-
ples. These targets were placed along the THz beam path with their distances to
the lens, corresponding to d
0
in Equation (15), being 3, 7 and 14 cm, respectively.
Images of patterns on the sensor plane at distance d
1
= 6 cm are measured at fre-
quencies of 0.74, 1.24, and 1.57 THz, respectively. The corresponding images are
shown in Fig. 6.21d, e, and f. At each frequency, a Fresnel lens images a different
plane section of a target object while images from other depths remain blurred. Each
point in the different object planes along the z-axis is mapped onto a correspond-
ing point on the image plane (sensor plane) with the magnication factor d
1
/d
0
at
their corresponding frequencies. Table 6.2 summarizes the properties of those three
objects and their images.
Figure 6.22 shows target distance d
0
as function of TLHz wave frequency for
three different image distances of d
1
equal to 4.6, 5.6 and 7.4 cm respectively
and shows a strong agreement between the experimental (points) and the mea-
sured (curves) values. Lateral spatial resolution of THz wave image created by a
146 6 THz Wave 3D Imaging and Tomography
Table 6.2 Characters of 3 targets and their images
Object (Fig. 6.22)
Size (mm) 5 10 14
Object distance (cm) 3 7 14
Carrier frequency (THz) 0.75 1.24 1.57
Image size (mm) 10 8 6
Magnication (experimental) 2 0.8 4.2
Magnication (calculation) 2 0.85 4.3
Fig. 6.22 The object distance in Fresnel lens based THz wave tomographic imaging system as
functions of THz frequency for three different image distances
Fresnel lens is limited by diffraction of the imaging system. The longitudinal spatial
resolution is determined by the spectral resolution of the THz wave detector. The
relationship between longitudinal range of the object plane and the bandwidth of
THz wave can be derived from Equation (16) as
d
0
=
_
d
2
0
z

. (17)
Equation (17) shows that the longitudinal resolution increases with higher THz wave
frequency. The longitudinal resolution also quickly decays with the object distance.
Figure 6.23 shows longitudinal spatial resolution in Fresnel lens induced tomo-
graphic image as a function of THz frequency. The depth of eld of the imaging
3Dimensional Imaging Using Fresnel Lens 147
Fig. 6.23 The longitudinal
resolution in Fresnel lens
based THz wave tomographic
imaging system as a function
of THz wave frequency
(corresponding to the object
distance)
system, provided by Equation (21) of Chapter 3 also affects the longitudinal reso-
lution of the system The distance between the two distinguishable planes should be
larger than the depth of eld for a better resolution.. If the spatial resolution on the
imaging plane equals to the Airy disk size and is much smaller than aperture of the
lens, depth of eld of the imager is dened as
L = 2.44
l
2
D
2
. (18)
Equation (18) indicates that the depth of eld is also proportional to square of the
object distance and inversely proportional to the carrier wave frequency.
Similar to THz DT, image quality of Fresnel lens induced THz tomographic
imaging is also related to frequency of THz wave. The image quality is best between
Fig. 6.24 Photo (a) and cw
THz wave CT image of an air
freshener
148 6 THz Wave 3D Imaging and Tomography
0.5 and 1.25 THz and reduces at higher and lower frequency ends. At the lower fre-
quency end, the lateral resolution is limited by diffraction of the carrier while the
longitudinal resolution is limited according to Equation (17). It is also worth notic-
ing that, since Fresnel lens creates image following the imaging formula in Equation
(15), the magnication factors will be different for targets with different object dis-
tances. This needs to be taken into account in order to correctly retrieve the 3D
image.
Above discussions are focused on THz wave tomography techniques utilizing
pulsed THz wave. THz wave tomographic images can also be obtained using cw
THz. Figure 6.24 shows a tomographic image (displayed in 2D) of an air freshner
case obtained by using the CW Gas Laser at 1.63 THz with a power of 180 mW. The
case is made of plastic, which is transparent to THz wave. The THz wave tomog-
raphy image shows both the external pattern of the shell prole and the internal
structure of the case.
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