Terahertz wave-guided reflectometry system

Overview & Synopsis

This work aims to build up a compact easily-implemented terahertz wave-guided reflectometry (TGR) system by taking advantage of the terahertz transceiver and waveguides for diverse applications. Compared to conventional systems using a quasi-optical method, the new concept has a much simpler configuration and allows for remote probing applications.After reviews on the development of terahertz technology, an optical-pumped double-PCA transceiver and two frequency-modulated continuous-wave (FMCW) radar transceivers together with hollow-core thin-wall waveguides are selected to implement the first TGR system in pulse mode and in FMCW mode. Both experiments and 3D full-wave simulation are exploited to investigate the propagation behaviors of waves inside the system and to evaluate the system performance. The created TGR systems are demonstrated for imaging and sensing purposes. Thanks to the guiding capacity of the waveguide, these setups show potential in some difficult measurement conditions, such as in a narrow semi-enclosed environment or the liquid. In particular, the solid immersion lens inserted at the end of the waveguide has been proved as an efficient method to enhance the imaging capacity of the TGR system in FMCW mode, giving rise to a subwavelength resolution at the frequency band around 100 GHz.In addition to the studies of TGR systems, an on-wafer reflectometry system exploiting optical-pumped sources is as well proposed to benefit from the wide frequency band of photonic sources. As the first attempt, RF probes in association with double-PCA transceiver are used to deliver the pulse signal into samples on-wafer and the obtained time signals are analyzed. More propositions are given to push further up this study.