TERA4ALL
Terahertz (THz) waves are located between infrared and microwaves. They are harmless and non-ionizing, they penetrate a lot of materials. The project TERA4ALL aims at promoting THz technologies towards industries and to develop innovative imaging and spectroscopy techniques.
I
n this framework, CSL develops THz imaging techniques for detecting defects in composite materials. Mainly, techniques based on coherent imaging will be studied in order to locate defects in depths of materials.
Duration: 2016-2020
Objectives: Develop a new terahertz imaging technique based on digital holography for the nondestructive inspection of composite materials. Other applications are foreseen in different domains covered in the main TERA4ALL project by other consortium partners: biomedical, agriculture, pharmacy mainly.
Digital holography allows observing tiny phase and amplitude variation related to the presence of defect inside a material, moreover it allows to find its depth due to the numerical reconstruction principle.
The main equipment purchased in the project is the following:
- A gas laser, 295 FIR, from company Edinburgh Instruments, emitting 500 mW at 118 µm wavelength. Other emission lines are also possible.
- A microbolometer camera, MicroXCam-i384, from company INO
- A series of optomechanical elements for the integration of laser and camera into a digital holography setup.
THz gas laser THz digital holography setup
Funding: the research and equipment are funded by European Union under the FEDER 2014-2020 program and by Wallonia region.
- Total funding: 1.000.166,45 €
- Funding European Union (FEDER): 403.266,58 €
- Funding Wallonia: 604.899,9 €
