Abstract-Terahertz optical properties of the cornea

• Wen-Quan Liu^a, b, c, 
• Yuan-Fu Lu^{a, b, c, ,} , 
• Guo-Hua Jiao^a, b, c, 
• Xian-Feng Chen^d, 
• Jin-Ying Li^e, 
• Si-Hai Chen^a, b, c, 
• Yu-Ming Dong^a, b, c, 
• Jian-Cheng Lv^a, b, c

• ^a Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen 518055, PR China
• ^b Biomedical Engineering Laboratory for Photoelectric Sensing Technology, Shenzhen 518055, PR China
• ^c The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong, PR China
• ^d Bangor University, Bangor, Gwynedd LL57 2DG, UK
• ^e Department of Ophthalmology, Peking University Shenzhen Hospital, Shenzhen 518036, PR China

Received 8 July 2015, Revised 21 September 2015, Accepted 29 September 2015, Available online 9 November 2015

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0030401815301802

We present a study aimed at developing a terahertz time domain spectroscopy (THz-TDS) system for detection of the optical properties of ex vivo rabbit corneal tissues with different water content at terahertz frequencies (0.1–0.3 THz). The refractive index decreased with frequency while the absorption coefficient increased with frequency. Our experimental results matched the theoretical calculation very well revealing that both the absorption coefficient and the refractive index of a hydrated cornea were much larger than that of a dehydrated cornea and the terahertz properties depended on the hydrate conditions of the biosamples.