Sung Shijun, Dabironezare Shahab, Llombart Nuria, Selvin Skyler, Bajwa Neha, Chantra Somporn, Nowroozi Bryan, Garritano James, Goell Jacob, Li Alex, Deng Sophie X, Brown Elliott, Grundfest Warren S, Taylor Zachary D
UCLA Dept. of Electrical Engineering, Los Angeles, CA 90095.
Center for Wireless Systems and Technology, TU Delft, Netherlands.
IEEE Trans Terahertz Sci Technol. 2018 Jan;8(1):1-12. doi: 10.1109/TTHZ.2017.2771754. Epub 2017 Nov 22.
Reflection mode Terahertz (THz) imaging of corneal tissue water content (CTWC) is a proposed method for early, accurate detection and study of corneal diseases. Despite promising results from and cornea studies, interpretation of the reflectivity data is confounded by the contact between corneal tissue and dielectric windows used to flatten the imaging field. Herein, we present an optical design for non-contact THz imaging of cornea. A beam scanning methodology performs angular, normal incidence sweeps of a focused beam over the corneal surface while keeping the source, detector, and patient stationary. A quasioptical analysis method is developed to analyze the theoretical resolution and imaging field intensity profile. These results are compared to the electric field distribution computed with a physical optics analysis code. Imaging experiments validate the optical theories behind the design and suggest that quasioptical methods are sufficient for designing of THz corneal imaging systems. Successful imaging operations support the feasibility of non-contact imaging. We believe that this optical system design will enable the first, clinically relevant, exploration of CTWC using THz technology.
角膜组织含水量（CTWC）的反射模式太赫兹（THz）成像是一种用于早期、准确检测和研究角膜疾病的提议方法。尽管在角膜研究中取得了有前景的结果，但由于角膜组织与用于平整成像区域的介电窗口之间的接触，反射率数据的解释变得复杂。在此，我们提出一种用于角膜非接触太赫兹成像的光学设计。一种光束扫描方法在保持源、探测器和患者静止的同时，对聚焦光束在角膜表面进行角度、垂直入射扫描。开发了一种准光学分析方法来分析理论分辨率和成像场强度分布。将这些结果与用物理光学分析代码计算的电场分布进行比较。成像实验验证了设计背后的光学理论，并表明准光学方法足以用于太赫兹角膜成像系统的设计。成功的成像操作支持非接触成像的可行性。我们相信，这种光学系统设计将能够首次使用太赫兹技术对CTWC进行与临床相关的探索。
