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Method Development for Contactless Resonant Cavity Dielectric Spectroscopic Studies of Cellulosic Paper
Published on: October 4, 2019
Terahertz birefringence and attenuation properties of wood and paper
1Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada. reid@ece.ualberta.ca
Abstract:
The far-infrared properties of spruce wood are examined with a terahertz time-domain spectrometer. The solid wood is shown to exhibit both birefringence and diattenuation. The birefringence properties are sufficient for construction of a quarter-wave plate operating at 0.36 THz, and a half-wave plate operating at 0.71 THz. The origin of the birefringence is attributed to preferential fiber orientation within the wood. Similar birefringence is observed in lens paper in which the fibers are preferentially oriented in one direction.
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