Method of measuring skin stratum corneum water content using terahertz waves

摘要

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To measure moisture content in a stratum corneum of a human skin using a terahertz wave.SOLUTION: The moisture content measuring method includes the steps of: bringing the surface of a skin as a sample into contact with the surface of a prism as an emission plane of terahertz wave; irradiating the skin with a terahertz wave in an area of 0.1-2.0THz, preferably 0.6-1.2THz under a condition of total reflection; calculating an ATR signal amount corresponding to the reflectance; and calculating the moisture content in the stratum corneum by comparing the calculated ATR signal amount to a standard corneum model the moisture content of which is known, for example, an ATR signal amount of human standard corneum layer model of a powder of corneum collected from a human skin.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1