The study of quasi-optical system used in a passive near-field tetrahertz imaging system

Passive terahertz imaging technology, which provided blackbody thermal imaging, showed great potential for security applications during the last years. Different research teams in different countries spent a great effort on it for obvious reasons, and first commercial passive THz human imaging system was available. Yet, development of passive THz-imaging system was always limited by the frame rate, spatial resolution and detector cell of it. In this paper, we presented the concept and experimental set-up for a quasi-optical system used in a near-field 0.14THz passive terahertz imaging system. The quasi-optical system was composed of a double-mirror beam-waveguide system and a special feed-horns array. The design of quasi-optical system was based on near-field Gauss optics theory. The double-mirror beam waveguide system was made up of an off-axis ellipsoid mirror and a flat mirror. The influence of angle-scanning of quasi-optics system in near-field THz-imaging was investigated theoretically. Meanwhile, a spatial sparse array-arrangement of feed-horns was applied in quasi-optics system, that the adjacent feed-horns were stagger in the horizontal direction. The influence of this special feed-horns array arrangement on the near-field imaging was also discussed in theory. The quasi-optical system met the requirements of the near-field imaging. The problem of low frame rate of traditional sparse array arrangement was solved by this special array arrangement. And the spatial imaging range of the passive imaging system was also increased. The experimental results of this terahertz imaging system were consistent with our earlier theoretical results. When the detective distance was 3-5m, the experimental spatial resolution of near-field THz imaging was 5cm, and a 5Hz of frame rate was obtained. The quasi-optics system had demonstrated its ability to scan persons and various kinds of objects. We hoped a commercial, user-friendly terahertz imaging system, which could be used for security purposes, would be achieved in the future. And as a beginning step towards this goal, our theoretical and experimental results would be the basis of the improvement of near-field passive terahertz imaging system.