Abstract
Recently, electromagnetic waves in teraherlz (THz) region between microwaves and infrared radiation have been getting an increasing attention. One of distinctive advantages of the THz electromagnetic waves is that many materials such as plastic and ceramics have extremely high transparency in THz range. The THz electromagnetic waves could make it possible to evaluate material deterioration such as corrosion under corrosion protection coating. As a fundamental study for the development of a new technique, we investigated the transparency of the THz electromagnetic waves in the corrosion protection paint with glass flakes used for the oil storage tank. A THz time-domain speciroscopy (THz-TDS) system with femtosecond laser and photoconductive switches was employed. It was found that the corrosion protection paint has a high transparency in THz range demonstrating the feasibility of the THz wave for innovative nondestructive testing of oil storage tank.
