Terahertz (THz) spectroscopy is a promising method for analysing polar gas molecules mixed with unwanted aerosols due to its ability to obtain spectral fingerprints of rotational transition and immunity to aerosol scattering. In this article, dynamic THz spectroscopy of acetonitrile (CH3CN) gas was performed in the presence of smoke under the atmospheric pressure using a fibre-based, asynchronous-optical-sampling THz time-domain spectrometer. To match THz spectral signatures of gas molecules at atmospheric pressure, the spectral resolution was optimized to 1 GHz with a measurement rate of 1 Hz. The spectral overlapping of closely packed absorption lines significantly boosted the detection limit to 200 ppm when considering all the spectral contributions of the numerous absorption lines from 0.2 THz to 1 THz. Temporal changes of the CH3CN gas concentration were monitored under the smoky condition at the atmospheric pressure during volatilization of CH3CN droplets and the following diffusion of the volatilized CH3CN gas without the influence of scattering or absorption by the smoke. This system will be a powerful tool for real-time monitoring of target gases in practical applications of gas analysis in the atmospheric pressure, such as combustion processes or fire accident.

We describe what we believe to be a new digital holographic configuration that can be utilized for both single-shot, dual-wavelength, off-axis geometry and imaging polarimetry. To get the feasibility of the single-shot, dual-wavelength, off-axis geometry, a sample with a nominal step height of 1.34 μm is used. Undesirable noises that strongly affect the measurement have been suppressed successfully by using a modified flat fielding method for the dual-wavelength scheme. And also, the experiment is conducted on a nanopattern sample on the basis of a single image acquisition to show the imaging polarimetry capability. The proposed scheme can provide a real-time solution for measuring three-dimensional objects having a high abrupt height difference with moderate accuracy. Furthermore, it can be used as a fast polarization imaging measurement tool.

We describe a configuration that can be used for two-wavelength phase-shifting in-line interferometry based on polarizing separation. The experiment is conducted on a sample with a step height of 1.34 μm nominally. In this paper, five- and seven-phase step algorithms have been compared for their effectiveness in reducing the noise in the phase maps. The noise is further reduced by the application of the flat fielding method. The recorded interferograms are processed using seven-phase step algorithm to obtain the phase map for each wavelength separately. The independent phase maps are subtracted and a phase map for the beat-wavelength is obtained and converted to height map. The results extracted from the seven-phase step algorithm have been compared with the results extracted from the single shot off-axis geometry and the results are in agreement.

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The purposes of the paper are threefold: (1) to show the possibility to perform parallel phase-shifting Fizeau interferometry by using a quarter waveplate with high flatness as a reference, (2) to present a comparative study between the phase-shifting algorithm and the off-axis geometry in surface microtopography measurement, and (3) to show the advantages of using the proposed common path Fizeau interferometry over the quasi-common path Michelson interferometry in terms of accuracy in measurement. The compelling advantage of the proposed parallel phase-shifting Fizeau interferometric technique is the long-term stability that leads to measuring objects with a high degree of accuracy.