Terahertz imaging of composite materials in reflection and transmission mode with a time-domain spectroscopy system

A fiber-coupled Terahertz time domain spectroscopy (THz-TDS) system based on photoconductive antennas, pumped by a 100-fs fiber laser, has been used to characterize materials in transmission and reflection mode. THz images are acquired by mounting the samples under investigation on an x-y stage, which is stepped through the beam while the transmitted or reflected THz waveform is captured. The samples include a carbon fiber epoxy composite and a sandwich-structured composite panel with an aramid fiber honeycomb core in between two skin layers of fiberglass reinforced plastic. The former has an artificially induced void, and from a comparison of recorded reflected time-domain signals, with and without the void, a simple model for the structure of the composite is proposed that describes the time-domain signals reasonably well.