Development of passive millimeter-wave microscopy

In this research project, passive millimeter-wave microscopy that enables imaging of the thermal radiation emitted from a sample with a spatial resolution below the diffraction limit is investigated to demonstrate the imaging capability of this microscopy format at low temperatures. This technique utilizes a sensitive radiometric receiver in combination with a scanning near-field microscope. Experiments performed at 50 GHz （wavelength: 6 mm) at various sample temperatures show that our passive millimeter-wave microscope system can successfully image thermal radiation even in the low temperature range where passive imaging systems in the infrared region are ineffective.