Terahertz confocal microscopy with a quantum cascade laser source

De Cumis, Ugo Siciliani and Xu, Ji Hua and Masini, Luca and Degl'Innocenti, Riccardo and Pingue, Pasqualantonio and Beltram, Fabio and Tredicucci, Alessandro and Vitiello, Miriam S. and Benedetti, Pier Alberto and Beere, Harvey E. and Ritchie, David A. (2012) Terahertz confocal microscopy with a quantum cascade laser source. Optics Express, 20 (20). pp. 21924-21931. ISSN 1094-4087

Abstract

We report on the implementation of a confocal microscopy system based on a 2.9 THz quantum cascade laser source. Lateral and axial resolutions better than 70 μm and 400 μm, respectively, are achieved, with a large contrast enhancement compared to the non-confocal arrangement. The capability of resolving overlapping objects lying on different longitudinal planes is also clearly demonstrated.