Phantom Tissues From Membrane Biopolymer Composite Materials For Terahertz Applications

At present, due to the rapid development of THz technology in medical applications, it becomes urgent to develop stable test objects (phantoms) for calibration, optimization of the operation of devices, and verification of the research methods used. In this work, a five-component phantom has been developed based on water, glycerin, starch, bentonite, and gelatin, and it was shown that these phantoms can be used as indicators of the level of dehydration of the renal tumor tissue. The mechanical properties of the phantom were investigated, the dispersions of the refractive index and absorption coefficient of the biocomposite were determined in the range from 0.2 to 1 THz. To simulate the optical parameters of a phantom depending on the concentration of inclusions, an iterative method was developed and it was found that this method makes it possible to simulate the optical parameters of a phantom at low concentrations of bentonite. It is shown that in the structure of a five-component phantom, during fabrication, clusters of starch particles are formed, and the resonant interaction of the incident THz radiation with cluster particles leads to the excitation of whispering gallery modes.