Leading-edge developments of infrared vision for demanding scientific applications

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Infrared (IR) imaging is a valuable tool for the nondestructive testing (NDT) of materials and the temperature mapping of the scenes under inspection. Basically, the observation is implemented either with a passive or active mode. The passive mode consists in exploiting the IR radiation distribution as naturally emitted by a scene. In the active mode, an external heat or light source is required to perturb the natural equilibrium of the scene under observation and produce IR radiation differences (thermal or non-thermal) between the features of interest and the background. IR vision still faces several limitations at both the detection and interpretation stages, in particular for demanding applications. Short-term objectives of the proposed research are oriented towards the investigation of new ways for solving some of the key issues; they are in agreement with and ensure the continuity of the long-term goals of our research activities. The current proposed research program provides promising potential for the following original and valuable activities: 1) IR inspection of scenes with 3D complex shapes: the objective is to recover the inspected surface geometry and to correct the thermal images acquired during a thermal NDT test so that the detection of hidden defects is completed in a suitable way; 2) IR inspection of high speed heat transfer: the goal is to use stroboscopic techniques to artificially increase the apparent frame rate of our IR imagers; 3) IR inspection of microscale scenes: innovative development is foreseen by using the new trends in super resolution. The central goal is microscale thermal imaging; 4) Very far infrared (Terahertz) inspection: the recent progress in the terahertz field would allow the adaptation of our IR vision systems to terahertz measurement; this would be beneficial for our activities in NDT; and 5) IR multispectral inspection: the objective consists in pursuing our activities in the multispectral field by developing a tomography inspection method for silicon based structures. The significance of the activities proposed in this application is two-fold. First, the basis of the work has a strong theoretical foundation; and secondly, the expected results could be well applied in various industries.