Particle characterization using THz spectroscopy

TL;DR

This paper presents a method using THz extinction spectroscopy to rapidly determine particle sizes and distributions in powders and granular materials from single spectral measurements.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach to extract particle size information from THz spectra, extending the capabilities of traditional UV-Vis and NIR spectroscopy.

Findings

Particle sizes can be derived from the spectral position of the first peak.

Size distributions are obtained from the visibility of ripple structures.

The method enables quick, single-measurement characterization.

Abstract

THz extinction spectroscopy extends UV-Vis and NIR-spectroscopy to characterize particles from fine powders and dust to sand, grains and granulated materials. We extract particle sizes from the spectral position of the first peak of the interference structure and size distributions from the visibility of the fine ripple structure in the measured extinction spectra. As such, we can demonstrate a route for a quick determination of these parameters from single measurements.