Passive terahertz imaging for security application

Abstract

The passive detection is safe for passengers and operators as no radiation. Therefore, passive terahertz (THz) imaging can be applied to human body security check. Imaging in the THz band offers the unique property of being able to identify object through a range of materials. Therefore passive THz imaging is meaningful for security applications. This attribute has always been of interest to both the civil and military marks with applications. We took advantage of a single THz detector and a trihedral scanning mirror to propose another passive THz beam scanning imaging method. This method overcame the deficiencies of the serious decline in image quality due to the movement of the focused mirror. We exploited a THz scanning mirror with a trihedral scanning mirror and an ellipsoidal mirror to streamline the structure of the system and increase the scanning speed. Then the passive THz beam scanning imaging system was developed based on this method. The parameters were set as follows: the best imaging distance was 1.7m, the image height was 2m, the image width was 1m, the minimum imaging time of per frame was 8s, and the minimum resolution was 4cm. We imaged humans with different objects hidden under their clothes, such as fruit knife, belt buckle, mobile phone, screwdriver, bus cards, keys and other items. All the tested stuffs could be detected and recognized from the image.