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- 2010 (2) (entfernen)
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Schlagworte
The emerging technology of generation and detection of Terahertz waves (1 THz = 1012
Hz) offers diverse potentials in non-destructive testing (NDT) regarding security as well
as safety aspects. Herein, we focus on the latter with emphasis on imaging techniques.
The THz range (0.1
10 THz, 3mm
30 µm) closes the technological gap between
ultra high frequency electronics and FIR optics in the electro-magnetic (EM) spectrum.
Electro-optical sampling provides straight access to the EM wave including its phase
(rather than intensity). THz waves are well suited to characterize non-metallic materials
since they penetrate paper, plastics, ceramics and certain composites (e.g. GFC).
We employ a commercial fibre-coupled THz time domain spectrometer (TDS) for
scanning the samples laterally through a focal spot. At each position the entire temporal
pulse train is recorded, which offers the opportunity to use various parameters derivable
for imaging.
Topographic measurements are performed as reflection set-up. The achievable spatial
resolution is diffraction limited at about 100 µm -300 µm (which allows for perception
of single defects on a sub-mm scale). In contrast to typical pulse echoed ultrasound
testing THz topography is a non-contact inspection tool without coupling agents.
Several reflections of subsequent concealed layers are detected instead of just the first
encountered one. Comparing to X-ray (radiology) the non-ionizing THz-waves generate
images of similar contrast regarding metal and plastic (organic) components, while
conventional radiography emphasizes one type of material depending on the energy preselected.
Moreover, the full temporal information is exploited to derive spectra in
certain selected time windows, i.e. separated spectral properties of each layer in
multilayered structures.
Tomographic measurements are performed in transmission mode. The sample is
mounted on a rotation stage in order to allow for lateral scanning under the different
projection angles. The reconstruction is typically performed by filtered backprojection,
which is widely used for X-ray CT. The adaption of this technique to the THz range
comes along with several experimental drawbacks such as considerable refraction and
scattering. According to these difficulties we investigate the occurring artefacts. The
THz-TDS provides the opportunity to calculate a separate backprojection of each
frequency interval as obtained by the Fourier transformation of the recorded time
resolved amplitude. This results in a spectrally resolved reconstruction of each voxel,
which is unique in computed tomography technology.
Computed tomography reconstructions of projected data usually assume an ideal point-like
focal spot. However, in practice, the actual finite focus size leads to blurred projections,
unavoidably. The elements (voxels) of the reconstruction array are smeared differently as a
function of their individual position relative to source and detector. Neglecting the focal
smearing generates considerably blurred reconstructions. Previous attempts were based on
directly deconvolving blurred projections from a constant kernel, which yields better results
but still exhibits artefacts. Iterative algorithms can be adopted to take into account focal
smearing as a function of position. However, this requires detailed prior knowledge of
quantitative smear functions. The DIRECTT (Direct Iterative Reconstruction of Computed
Tomography Trajectories) algorithm is a promising candidate to meet these requirements. It
has been demonstrated elsewhere that DIRECTT copes with limited data sets such as
limited view and region-of- interest data by tracing single sinusoidal-like trajectories in
Radon space, which are selected from the set of all possible trajectories by appropriate
criteria. Currently, position-dependent smearing is used in the projection part of iterations.
At the example of model reconstructions we demonstrate the gain of spatial resolution by
iterative variable desmearing according to the DIRECTT algorithm in comparison to the
standard filtered back-projection.