Study of the low-cost HIPS and paraffin-based terahertz optical components

Abstract

The ever-increasing popularity of the terahertz (THz) frequency range reveals the increasingly obvious applicability limiting factor – the price of the final setup. This study is intended to contribute to the solution by evaluating the THz frequency range suitability of the optical components, fabricated using two easily accessible materials – high impact polystyrene (HIPS) and paraffin. The primary analysis using time-domain spectroscopy (TDS) revealed promising results, as both materials had sufficient refractive indexes of n ≈ 1.55 and a high transmittance. That allowed one to assume the feasibility of creating a low-cost THz frequency range lens. Lenses of focal lengths of f = 20, 30, 40 mm were fabricated using extrusion 3D printing and paraffin moulding. The produced lenses showcased the satisfactory beam focusing ability, comparable to that of already existing much less cost-efficient solutions. The THz imaging using the fabricated lenses has successfully been realized, proving the applicational possibilities of the imaging system with the proposed low-cost components employed.