Large‐wavelength Gaussian deconvolution phase‐contrast computed tomography for THz continuous wave (0.11 THz)

Abstract

This letter was to present an attempt of large‐wavelength Gaussian deconvolution phase‐contrast computed tomography (LW‐GD‐PCCT) for promotion of image quality reconstructed in low‐frequency band of terahertz (THz) spectrum at 0.11 THz. The interaction between the imaging samples and the THz Gaussian beam were formulated firstly in this paper, where the unwrapped phase was extracted specifically to portray the spatial structure distribution of the samples. Additionally, a Gaussian deconvolution was employed for the further reduction of spatial distortions. Moreover, an image reconstruction was carried out with the obtained phase sinograms based on phase‐used inverse Radon transform from the different positions on the sample. For an experimental assessment of the concept of LW‐GD‐PCCT, a single ellipsoid reflector‐based THz Gaussian beam generating system was established and samples such as polystyrene (PS) foam cuboid (Sample 1), and cylinder (Sample 2) with hollow defects (air holes and triangles) were prepared carefully in this work. To experimentally evaluate the performance of the contributing to the structural imaging over soft samples. Two‐dimensional topographies of each sample were reconstructed successfully, and the obtained cross root‐mean‐square error (cross‐RMSE), cross peak signal‐to‐noise ratio (cross‐PSNR), and cross structural similarity (cross‐SSIM) were 151.6451, 26.3225, and 0.9616 for Sample 1 with a high dose of 180 projections respectively, as well as 30.3242, 33.3129, and 0.9711 for Sample 2 with a low dose of 36 projections, respectively. The obtained imaging indicators of this work showed a superiority of imaging quality over those of recent works. Furthermore, the investigation of the bearing capacity has shown promise in enhancing image quality even in low‐dose conditions. The presented results suggest that the unwrapped phase combining with Gaussian deconvolution in low‐frequency band of THz imaging would be useful to improve the reconstructed image quality, potential to highly feasible non‐destructive testing of polymer foam via large wavelength.