Wavefront-modified vector beams for THz cornea spectroscopy

• Published in: Optics express 2023-11, Vol.31 (24), p.40293-40307
• Main Authors: Lamberg, Joel, Zarrinkhat, Faezeh, Tamminen, Aleksi, Baggio, Mariangela, Ala-Laurinaho, Juha, Rius, Juan, Romeu, Jordi, Khaled, Elsayed E. M., Taylor, Zachary
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1094-4087; 1094-4087
• DOI: 10.1364/OE.494460

Terahertz spectroscopy is a promising method to diagnose ocular diseases, where the cornea is typically imaged by Gaussian beams. However, the beam’s mismatch with the cornea’s spherical surface produces a 5-10 % error in analysis. We investigate cornea spectroscopy with wavefront-modified vector beams, reducing the original analysis error to less than 0.5 %. Vector beams are synthesized by our developed 3D Angular Spectrum Method expanded to vector spherical harmonic presentation, allowing wavefront modification and scattering analysis from 100-layer cornea models. We show that wavefront-modified spherical vector beams possess increased accuracy and non-sensitive focusing on cornea spectroscopy compared to the Gaussian beams. Additionally, we investigate wavefront-modified cylindrical vector beams, which show frequency-dependent scattering power arising from s- and p-polarizations. As a result, these beams are unsuitable for cornea spectroscopy, although they have potential for optical force applications. Wavefront-modified vector beams can be applied to spherical target spectroscopy and optical force applications, such as medicine, medical imaging, and optical tweezers.