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We demonstrate how the terahertz properties of porcine adipose tissue and skeletal muscle are affected by formalin fixing. Terahertz radiation is sensitive to covalently cross-linked proteins and can be used to probe unique spectroscopic signatures. We study in detail the changes arising from different fixation times and see that formalin fixing reduces the refractive index and the absorption coefficient of the samples in the terahertz regime. These fundamental properties affect the time-domain terahertz response of the samples and determine the level of image contrast that can be achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A key step in transforming terahertz imaging to a practical medical imaging modality lies in understanding the interactions between terahertz (THz) waves and biological tissues. Most of the models in the literature use the permittivity of liquid water to simulate the THz-tissue interactions, but they often neglect contributions from the biological background such as proteins and lipids because dehydrated biological samples are experimentally difficult to prepare. In this work, we present a method to prepare thin and flat dehydrated samples which can be easily handled and measured in a transmission setup. Our results will provide fundamental parameters for modelling THz-tissue interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vandium dioxide (VO2) shows promise as the basis for a terahertz wave modulator due to its phase transition properties. Its insulator–metal-transition (IMT) can be induced either through temperature changes, optically or electronically. Recently, a metal-VO2 wire grid structure was proposed which was able to increase the modulation depth (MD) from 0.65 to 0.9, suggesting that these simple metallic structures could greatly increase the difference in terahertz transmission for the insulating and metallic states of VO2 based structures. In this paper, we have found that the increase in MD decreases with increasing VO2 conductivity in the metallic state, resulting in a maximum modulation depth of approximately 0.95 for wire grid structures that preserves a high transmission in the insulating state. Surprisingly, we find that deposition of VO2 on top of metallic structures results in reduced performance. However, we find that devices based upon VO2 alone can achieve unexpectedly high performance. In this work we present a device with a switchable wire-grid polariser effect over a broadband frequency range (from 0.3 to 2 THz). To our knowledge this is the first such broadband metamaterial based solely on VO2. The ability to switch on a metamaterial property like this to produce a polarisation effect is very useful for future terahertz optical devices such as rotators and waveplates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sample dehydration has traditionally been a challenging problem in ex vivo terahertz biomedical experiments as water content changes significantly affect the terahertz properties and can diminish important contrast features. In this paper, we propose a novel method to prevent sample dehydration using gelatin embedding. By looking at terahertz image data and calculating the optical properties of the gelatin-embedded sample, we find that our method successfully preserves the sample for at least 35 h, both for imaging and spectroscopy. Our novel preservation method demonstrates for the first time the capability to simultaneously maintain sample structural integrity and prevent dehydration at room temperature. This is particularly relevant for terahertz studies of freshly excised tissues but could be beneficial for other imaging and spectroscopy techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interest in biomedical terahertz research is growing rapidly and there are now several terahertz groups in Asia, Europe and the US investigating potential applications such as pharmaceutical quality control, protein characterization and cancer detection. This review article outlines the technological bottlenecks that have been overcome which have made biomedical terahertz research possible. Key research findings will be presented, and the limitations that remain and the research initiatives that strive to address them will also be discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]