Phantom-based point spread function estimation for terahertz imaging system

Abstract

We present a terahertz imaging system designed to operate in reflection mode and propose a method for estimating its point spread function. A phantom with known geometry is built, such as to generate a regular pattern with sharp edges under an ideal delta-like point spread function. The phantom is imaged with the terahertz system operating at 186 GHz. Several masking alterations applied to the beam pattern are also tested. The corresponding point spread functions are obtained by a deconvolution technique in the Fourier domain. We validate our results by using the estimated point spread functions to deblur the imaging results of a natural scene, and by direct comparison with a point source response. © 2009 Springer Berlin Heidelberg.