Open AccessHigh-Sensitivity and Broadband, Real-Time Terahertz Camera Incorporating a Micro-Bolometer Array With Resonant Cavity Structure
Author(s) -
Natsuki Nemoto,
Natsuki Kanda,
Ryo Imai,
Kuniaki Konishi,
Masaru Miyoshi,
Seiji Kurashina,
Tokuhito Sasaki,
Naoki Oda,
Makoto Kuwata-Gonokami
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
ieee transactions on terahertz science and technology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.087
H-Index - 56
eISSN - 2156-3446
pISSN - 2156-342X
DOI - 10.1109/tthz.2015.2508010
Subject(s) - fields, waves and electromagnetics
Terahertz (THz) cameras comprising an uncooled micro-bolometer array have been developed for simple THz imaging, and the improvement of their sensitivity is one of the important issues. We fabricated a new micro-bolometer array with a resonant cavity structure for a real-time THz camera, alongside a new method for evaluating the sensitivity across a wide range of the THz frequency region. The frequency dependence of the sensitivity of the THz camera is measured in the 0.5-2.0-THz frequency range taking the polarization dependence into account. It was found that the resonant cavity structure effectively increased the sensitivity of the THz camera, and, actually, the improvement by one order of magnitude was achieved in the frequency range below 1 THz. The THz camera with much enhanced sensitivity will expand the frontiers of real-time THz imaging such as molecular imaging and nondestructive inspection.