Performance and metrological characteristics of THz systems for dual use applications

Over the past few years, the scientific community, both in academia and industry, witnessed a continuous and persistent effort in order to close the unexplored portion of the electromagnetic spectrum called THz gap, ranging from 100 GHz to 10 THz. Thanks to its properties, the THz technology finds application in diverse dual-use areas, spanning from chemical to pharmaceutical, biology and environmental sciences, and everyday applications within a broad range of industries including security, cultural heritage, manufacturing, and aerospace sectors. After a brief description of the common architecture of THz system, we focus here on Time Domain Spectroscopy (TDS-THz) THz system, we provide here some examples of dual-use THz applications, such as spectroscopic measurements of unknown objects or contactless and non-destructive analysis of different materials by spatial imaging operations.