Advanced birefringence measurements in standard terahertz time-domain spectroscopy.

Polarization-sensitive (PS) terahertz (THz) technology can be used for investigating anisotropic materials that are opaque for visible light. A full characterization of an anisotropic material requires the extraction of the birefringence as well as the orientation of the optical axis from the measurement data. We present an approach based on THz time-domain spectroscopy (TDS) that exploits the spectral content of the THz signal for determining these two parameters from only two measurements.

Deblurring algorithms accounting for the finite detector size in photoacoustic tomography.

Most reconstruction algorithms for photoacoustic tomography, like back projection or time reversal, work ideally for point-like detectors. For real detectors, which integrate the pressure over their finite size, images reconstructed by these algorithms show some blurring. Iterative reconstruction algorithms using an imaging matrix can take the finite size of real detectors directly into account, but the numerical effort is significantly higher compared to the use of direct algorithms.

Broadband high-frequency measurement of ultrasonic attenuation of tissues and liquids.

The ongoing expansion of the frequency range used for ultrasonic imaging requires increasing attention to the acoustic attenuation of biomaterials. This work presents a novel method for measuring the attenuation of tissue and liquids in vitro on the basis of single transmission measurements. Ultrasound was generated by short laser pulses directed onto a silicon wafer.