Experimental Imaging Research on Continuous-wave Terahertz In-line Digital Holography

The terahertz (THz) imaging is an advanced technique on the basis of the unique characteristics of terahertz radiation. Due to its noncontact, non-invasive and high-resolution capabilities, it has already shown great application prospects in biomedical observation, sample measurement, and quality control. The continuous-wave terahertz in-line digital holography is a combination of terahertz technology and in-line digital holography of which the source is a continuous-wave terahertz laser. Over the past decade, many researchers used different terahertz sources and detectors to undertake experiments. In this paper, the pre-process of the hologram is accomplished after the holograms' recording process because of the negative pixels in the pyroelectric detector and the air vibration caused by the chopper inside the camera. To improve the quality of images, the phase retrieval algorithm is applied to eliminate the twin images. In the experiment, the pin which terahertz wave can't penetrate and the TPX slice carved letters "THz" are chosen for the samples. The amplitude and phase images of samples are obtained and the twin image and noise in the reconstructed images are suppressed. The results validate the feasibility of the terahertz in-line digital holographic imaging technique. This work also shows the terahertz in-line digital holography technique's prospects in materials science and biological samples' detection.