Influence of disordered cover on cascade mechanism of medium response spectrum broadening at THz-TDS of substance

摘要

Remote sensing using the pulsed THz-TDS is of great interest because of its possible practical applications. Many ordinary materials (paper, for example) are transparent to THz radiation while the hazardous substances, which have to detect, possess fingerprints in this frequency range. However, covers of ordinary material can distort its spectrum in such a way that the spectrum of reflected THz pulse or transmitted THz pulse will contain absorption frequencies, which are inherent to dangerous substance (explosives, illistic drugs....), despite their absence in the material under consideration. On the other hand, it is well-known that the spectrum of medium response under the action of THz pulse is broader than the incident THz pulse spectrum. This is a result of a possibility of high energy level excitation due to cascade mechanism of their excitation. For practical point of view, it is very important to know about features of a covering substance influence on the medium response spectrum broadening. This problem is investigated in our report using the computer simulation. We carry out computer simulation of a few-cycle electromagnetic pulse interaction with a substance exhibiting nonlinear non-instantaneous response. An influence of the pulse duration and polarization relaxation rate on the pulse interaction with an uncovered medium and with a medium, which is covered by a linear disordered structure, is investigated. We demonstrate that the spectra of reflected or transmitted pulses may comprise multiple additional spectral lines, caused by various transitions between energy levels of molecules. The spectral intensity of these energy level transitions is affected by the pulse duration and the effective time of interaction which depends on polarization relaxation rate as well as the medium layer thickness.