US Patent 7693571 Method and apparatus for terahertz imaging

In an apparatus and method for imaging a sample: a) the sample to be imaged is irradiated with pulsed electro-magnetic radiation with a plurality of frequencies in the range from 50 GHz to 84 THz; b) an area of the sample is subdivided into a two dimensional array of pixels, and radiation from each pixel is detected over a plurality of frequencies; and c) an image is generated from the radiation detected in step (b) preferably using a frequency or a selection of frequencies from the plurality of frequencies in the pulsed electro-magnetic radiation. The method can be used as a medical imaging technique and can be used to image cancer tumors.