Terahertz hyper-imaging systems for advanced manufacturing

该项目旨在开发新型超成像系统（hyper代表时间和/或频率的多维度），用于使用太赫兹辐射对制造材料进行高级表征。拟议的多学科研究将使INRS-EMT的学术团队成员及其工业合作伙伴（TeTechS、完整性测试实验室和Lumenera）能够共同努力，追求具有前所未有能力的太赫兹成像技术。太赫兹成像在工业应用中受到了相当大的关注，因为它能够“看穿”对其他频率不透明的材料，并用于化合物识别。然而，在太赫兹成像的工业应用中仍然存在许多挑战，特别是关于图像重建所需的长采集时间。为了克服这一限制，我们计划开发一种基于“鬼成像”的新型成像技术。这种强大的方法将允许通过仅使用“单像素”太赫兹探测器（没有空间分辨率）与可见光/近红外范围的标准相机相结合来间接重建物体。这将使太赫兹成像无需使用非常昂贵的太赫兹相机。在接下来的三年里，我们的活动将集中在这一概念的三个具体实现上：(i)提供快速采集速率和材料识别的太赫兹高光谱鬼成像系统；（ii）能够相干地检测图像的每个像素中的太赫兹脉冲波形的超时间鬼成像系统；（iii）超分辨率鬼影成像系统，允许克服衍射限制的分辨率，并能够在太赫兹频率下检测亚微米特征。这项技术可能会导致光谱和成像仪器的重大改进，例如，对目前在航空航天和汽车工业中大量使用的先进陶瓷材料的分析具有直接相关性。最后，从这个项目中获得的新知识和HQP的相关培训肯定会有助于增强加拿大在高科技领域的竞争力。

This project targets the development of novel hyper-imaging systems (hyper stands for multidimensional in time and/or frequency) for the advanced characterization of manufactured materials using terahertz radiation. The proposed multidisciplinary research will enable the academic team members from INRS-EMT and their industrial partners (TeTechS, Integrity Testing Laboratory, and Lumenera), to lead a concerted effort in the pursuit of a terahertz imaging technology with unprecedented capabilities. Terahertz imaging has received considerable attention for industrial applications, due to its ability to "see through" materials that are opaque to other frequencies and for its use in chemical compound identification. However, many challenges still remain in the industrial use of terahertz imaging, in particular regarding the long acquisition time required for image reconstruction. To overcome this limitation, we plan to develop a novel imaging technology based on "ghost imaging". This powerful method will allow the indirect reconstruction of an object by using only a "single-pixel" terahertz detector (with no spatial resolution) in combination with a standard camera for the visible/near-infrared range. This will enable terahertz imaging without the use of a highly expensive terahertz camera. In the next three years, our activities will be focused on three specific realizations of this concept: (i) a terahertz hyper-spectral ghost imaging system offering fast acquisition rates and material recognition; (ii) a hyper-temporal ghost imaging system capable of coherently detect the terahertz pulse waveform in each pixel of the image; (iii) a super-resolution ghost imaging system, allowing to overcome diffraction-limited resolution and enabling the detection of sub-micron features at terahertz frequencies. This technology could lead to a significant improvement in spectroscopic and imaging instrumentation, being of immediate relevance, for example, for the analysis of advanced ceramic materials, which are largely used nowadays in the aerospace and automotive industries. Finally, the new knowledge derived from this project and the associated training of HQP will surely contribute to augment Canada's competitiveness in the high-technology sector.