Debye parameter extraction for characterizing interaction of terahertz radiation with human skin tissue

This paper is concerned with parameter extraction for the double Debye model, which is used for analytically determining human skin permittivity. These parameters are thought to be the origin of contrast in terahertz (THz) images of skin cancer. The existing extraction methods could generate Debye models, which track their measurements accurately at frequencies higher than 1 THz but poorly at lower frequencies, where the majority of permittivity contrast between healthy and diseased skin tissues is actually observed. We propose a global optimization-based parameter extraction, which results in globally accurate tracking and thus supports the full validity of the Debye model for simulating human skin permittivity in the whole usable THz frequencies. Numerical results confirm viability of our novel methodology. © 1964-2012 IEEE