Description

TeraLyzer is a first-of-its-kind software solution for material parameter extraction from terahertz time domain spectroscopy data in transmission geometry. It delivers highly precise information of the complex material parameters of a sample (n, α, κ, ε', ε''), including error bars and the estimated sample thickness.

One of the strong features of the TeraLyzer software is that thin samples in the sub-100 µm regime become accessible to your research without the need for differential measuring setups. Moreover, analysis of multilayer systems promotes a whole new range of experiments.

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The TeraLyzer software incorporates multiple procedures empowering investigation of thin samples of several mm down to sub-100 µm thickness. In a first step, your transmission THz-TDS data is imported and prepared for evaluation by a pre-processor. Secondly, the sample thickness is extracted. Finally, the optical parameters (n, α, κ, ε' and ε'’) along with error bars are evaluated.

After data evaluation, the complex optical parameters are derived, as presented below in the example of an α-Lactose and polypropylene compound. The spectral dependence of the refractive index of is shown below:

The absorption spectrum reveals clearly sharp resonant features:

The sample thickness is simultaneously extracted from the evaluated data using either of the two state-of-the-art approaches considering Fabry-Perot reflections: the Quasi Space [1] and the Total Variation [2] method. Thin samples in the sub-100 µm range can be characterized without difficulty in a standard experimental setup. Below, the refractive index and the derived thickness of a 28 µm thin PA6 film are shown:

Accurate thickness determination is also possible even if the sample is inaccessible, e.g. inside a cryostat. Moreover, the TeraLyzer supports also characterization of multilayer samples. Even highly absorbing samples can be measured due to dynamic range consideration according to [3].

[1] M. Scheller, C. Jansen, and M. Koch, Optics Communications, Volume 282, Issue 7, 1 April 2009, Pages 1304-1306

[2] I. Pupeza, R. Wilk, and M. Koch, Optics Express, Volume 15, Issue 7, 2 April 2007, Pages 4335-4350

[3] P. U. Jepsen and B. M. Fischer, Opt. Lett. 30, 2005, Pages 29-31

Applications

• Quality inspection
• Terahertz spectroscopy