Static terahertz imaging at a distance for concealed weapon detection

Using a high-powered pulsed terahertz source and electro-optic detection, a method for and examples of static THz imaging of targets at a distance of greater than 3 meters (no THz component is closer than 3 m from the target) are presented. The THz signal in all 200 times 200 pixels of an image are collected simultaneously to generate THz imagery of targets over the 0.3 THz to 2.0 THz frequency range. The field of view, restricted by a simple single lens optical system, is approximately 10 cm across with sub-millimeter spatial resolution. This capability demonstrates the viability of static electro-optic THz imaging without the need to raster-scan a scene to generate an image.