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。

Terahertz radiation is an electromagnetic radiation in the range between millimeter waves and far infrared. Due to its low energy and non-ionizing characters, THz pulse imaging emerges as a novel tool in many fields, such as material, chemical, biological medicine, and food safety. Limited spatial resolution is a significant restricting factor of terahertz imaging technology. Near field imaging method was proposed to improve the spatial resolution of terahertz system. Submillimeter scale’s spauial resolution can be achieved if the income source size is smaller than the wawelength of the incoming source and the source is very close to the sample. But many changes were needed to the traditional terahertz time domain spectroscopy system, and it’s very complex to analyze sample’s physical parameters through the terahertz signal. A method of inserting a pinhole upstream to the sample was first proposed in this article to improve the spatial resolution of traditional terahertz time domain spectroscopy system. The measured spatial resolution of terahertz time domain spectroscopy system by knife edge method can achieve spatial resolution curves. The moving stage distance between 10% and 90% of the maximum signals respectively was defined as the spatial resolution of the system. Imaging spatial resolution of traditional terahertz time domain spectroscopy system was improved dramatically after inserted a pinhole with diameter 0.5 mm, 2 mm upstream to the sample. Experimental results show that the spatial resolution has been improved from 1.276 mm to 0.774 mm, with the increment about 39%. Though this simple method, the spatial resolution of traditional terahertz time domain spectroscopy system was increased from millimeter scale to submillimeter scale. A pinhole with diameter 1 mm on a polyethylene plate was taken as sample to terahertz imaging study. The traditional terahertz time domain spectroscopy system and pinhole inserted terahertz time domain spectroscopy system were applied in the imaging experiment respectively. The relative THz-power loss imaging of samples were use in this article. This method generally delivers the best signal to noise ratio in loss images, dispersion effects are cancelled. Terahertz imaging results show that the sample’s boundary was more distinct after inserting the pinhole in front of sample. The results also conform that inserting pinhole in front of sample can improve the imaging spatial resolution effectively. The theoretical analyses of the method which improve the spatial resolution by inserting a pinhole in front of sample were given in this article. The analyses also indicate that the smaller the pinhole size, the longer spatial coherence length of the system, the better spatial resolution of the system. At the same time the terahertz signal will be reduced accordingly. All the experimental results and theoretical analyses indicate that the method of inserting a pinhole in front of sample can improve the spatial resolution of traditional terahertz time domain spectroscopy system effectively, and it will further expand the application of terahertz imaging technology.