Apertureless near-field terahertz imaging using the self-mixing effect in a quantum cascade laser

作者：Dean Paul^*; Mitrofanov Oleg; Keeley James; Kundu Iman; Li Lianhe; Linfield Edmund H; Davies A Giles

来源：Applied Physics Letters, 2016, 108(9): 091113.

DOI：10.1063/1.4943088

We report two-dimensional apertureless near-field terahertz (THz) imaging using a quantum cascade laser (QCL) source and a scattering probe. A near-field enhancement of the scattered field amplitude is observed for small tip-sample separations, allowing image resolutions of similar to 1 mu m (similar to lambda/100) and similar to 7 mu m to be achieved along orthogonal directions on the sample surface. This represents the highest resolution demonstrated to date with a THz QCL. By employing a detection scheme based on self-mixing interferometry, our approach offers experimental simplicity by removing the need for an external detector and also provides sensitivity to the phase of the reinjected field.

• 出版日期2016-2-29