A New and Safe 'X-Ray' Vision @ University of California at Santa Barbara

UCSB MRL researchers have recently developed a new way of seeing beneath clothing and other materials using a THz imaging system that employs a photoconductive switch for illumination and a zero-biased, Schottky diode for detection. Just like Superman, this novel Terahertz system penetrates textiles, in this case denim cloth from jeans, but does not use ionizing radiation and therefore poses a significantly reduced risk to human health when compared to x-rays. Features as small as 1 mm can be easily detected with this technology which holds significant promise for future security screening and homeland security applications .