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Terahertz time-gated spectral imaging for content extraction through layered structures

Author

Listed:
  • Albert Redo-Sanchez

    (MIT Media Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

  • Barmak Heshmat

    (MIT Media Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

  • Alireza Aghasi

    (Georgia Institute of Technology)

  • Salman Naqvi

    (MIT Media Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

  • Mingjie Zhang

    (MIT Media Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    Tsinghua University)

  • Justin Romberg

    (Georgia Institute of Technology)

  • Ramesh Raskar

    (MIT Media Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

Abstract

Spatial resolution, spectral contrast and occlusion are three major bottlenecks for non-invasive inspection of complex samples with current imaging technologies. We exploit the sub-picosecond time resolution along with spectral resolution provided by terahertz time-domain spectroscopy to computationally extract occluding content from layers whose thicknesses are wavelength comparable. The method uses the statistics of the reflected terahertz electric field at subwavelength gaps to lock into each layer position and then uses a time-gated spectral kurtosis to tune to highest spectral contrast of the content on that specific layer. To demonstrate, occluding textual content was successfully extracted from a packed stack of paper pages down to nine pages without human supervision. The method provides over an order of magnitude enhancement in the signal contrast and can impact inspection of structural defects in wooden objects, plastic components, composites, drugs and especially cultural artefacts with subwavelength or wavelength comparable layers.

Suggested Citation

  • Albert Redo-Sanchez & Barmak Heshmat & Alireza Aghasi & Salman Naqvi & Mingjie Zhang & Justin Romberg & Ramesh Raskar, 2016. "Terahertz time-gated spectral imaging for content extraction through layered structures," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 7(1), pages 1-7, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:7:y:2016:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms12665
    DOI: 10.1038/ncomms12665
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    Cited by:

    1. Dongyu Du & Xin Jin & Rujia Deng & Jinshi Kang & Hongkun Cao & Yihui Fan & Zhiheng Li & Haoqian Wang & Xiangyang Ji & Jingyan Song, 2022. "A boundary migration model for imaging within volumetric scattering media," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-10, December.
    2. Yaoyao Shi & Wei Sheng & Yangyang Fu & Youwen Liu, 2023. "Overlapping speckle correlation algorithm for high-resolution imaging and tracking of objects in unknown scattering media," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-8, December.

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