Cultural relics are a symbol of various times. The protection and restoration of cultural relics is a multidisciplinary work covering archaeology, physics, chemistry, and biology, etc. Exploring scientific means of nondestructive testing has always been the development direction of cultural relic protection workers. Terahertz has been widely used in various fields as an emerging discipline in the past 20 years. Utilizing the terahertz technology to the cultural relic has also been a research hotspot in recent years. This paper mainly describes the application of terahertz reflection imaging to a lacquer box. The experimental results show that the lacquer box sample has a double-layer structure. The bottom layer is a wooden basis, however, the upper surface is painted with lacquer and painted on it in order to achieve the purpose of decoration. The results demonstrate that the potential of terahertz reflection imaging can carry out non-destructive testing of samples with layer structure to study whether there is damage inside.
In order to remove the black pollution crusts on the marble artifacts, picosecond (ps) laser cleaning of marble samples has been performed experimentally at three different wavelengths (1064 nm, 532 nm, and 355 nm). Ablation threshold and cleaning efficiency of the three wavelength lasers have been characterized by measuring monolayer ablation depth with 3D microscope using the blow-off model. It has been found that laser ablation efficiency at 1064 nm wavelength is the highest among the above three wavelengths, while that of 355 nm wavelength is the lowest. The ablation threshold of 1064 nm, 532 nm, and 355 nm laser pulses are 0.198±0.033 J/cm2, 0.573±0.114 J/cm2 and 0.739±0.249 J/cm2 respectively. The advantages and effectiveness of ps laser cleaning have been demonstrated in removing contaminants on the marble samples at three different wavelengths, especially at 1064 nm.
Laser cleaning of manmade contaminants from stone samples have been performed experimentally using picosecond (ps) and nanosecond (ns) laser pulses. Regarding the surface roughness after laser cleaning, optimal cleaning parameters using ps laser have been obtained. Discoloration effect induced by ns laser cleaning of stone sample is improved with the usage of ps laser. The comparison on the roughness and elemental analysis of the cleaned area in the experiment also demonstrates the advantages and effectiveness of ps laser cleaning of stone samples.
Bronze cultural relics are an important part of Chinese traditional historical and cultural heritage. With the rapid development of ultrafast lasers in recent years, picosecond lasers have gradually been used in laser precision processing due to their controllability, reliability and low cost. With the increase of laser power, the laser ablation effect will occur[1].The contaminant on the surface of bronze cultural relics are thinner compared to that on other type of cultural heritage and need more accurate cleaning method needs to be used for removing contaminants without damaging the substrate of bronze relics. In 2013, Zhang Xiaotong et al. used wet laser cleaning technology to perform laser cleaning on the gilt bronze statues provided by Hebei Cultural Protection Center. They changed the power density, conducted preliminary trials of bronze cleaning [2]. In 2018, Shen Yijia et al. used agar gel and laser combined method to protect the bronze cultural relics from laser damage[3].
Qualitative and quantitative analysis of boron (B) in ceramics is of great significance to the preparation of ceramics. According to the relevant content of "Ceramic Technology", boron (B) can effectively reduce the melting temperature range of the glaze, and on the other hand, it can also reduce the surface tension of the glaze. Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) technique is expected to be one of the most preferred techniques in archaeology since it does not damage the structural and chemical component of cultural relics. It almost could achieve all elements in the periodic table. In this work, LIBS is used for analyzing boron (B) element in ceramics. By utilizing MobiLIBS system produced by the French company IVEA, this machine is equipped with automatic calibration curve module. We could build up the standard curve and uses the calibration curve to detect the boron element quantitatively. These results can provide the reference value for the restorers.
Chinese traditional lacquerwares, ornamental objects decorated by multiple, composite layers of lacquers, are one of the most significant expressions of China art. Existing X-ray radiography and other detection technologies will cause irreparable damage to the lacquerware due to their high photon energy. Terahertz time-domain spectroscopic reflectometric imaging (THz-TDSRI) system being capable of highlight interfaces between layers in a stratigraphic buildup, could be a complementary technique for obtaining structural information about lacquered objects. In this study a Chinese lacquerware has been investigated by terahertz (THz) reflectometric imaging. The investigated lacquerware belongs to Palace Museum. The lacquerware is a decorative work made of a wood panel covered with several layers of lacquers to depict motifs. In order to detect lacquerware, the THz-TDSRI system was built by us. For imaging applications, the source of contrast is the optical density of materials and in reflection geometry the back-reflected THz pulse is analyzed for reflections originating from the various interfaces present between the various sample layers. The value of the electric field measured for each spatial coordinate (X, Y) of the scanned areas has been used for the bidimensional visualization of the lacquerware. The displaying method used in THz imaging application is pseudo coloring. Utilizing THz-TDSRI system, we observe non-invasively buried layers of the lacquerware, including faults in the wood layer, with the lacquerware was not injured. This shows that THz time-domain spectroscopic reflectometric imaging is a non-destructive inspection method for lacquer ware and has great potential in the future.
The ceramics is easily broken due to various reasons. These reasons include unearthed excavation, careless operation and so on. When the ceramics is broken in pieces, the antique restorers take advantage of the adhesive to stick these fragments together to exhibit the beauty of original cultural relics. Therefore, the removal of adhesives such as adhesives on the cross-section of ceramic samples is a very important link in the restoration and protection of cultural relics and has important significance. In ancient times, the way of restoring these ceramics is so inappropriate and unreasonable that the adhesive is left among the cross section of these pieces. It becomes a problem for the following antique restorers. In order to solve this problem, we select a piece of the ceramics that possess above characteristics by utilizing laser to clean the left adhesive on the cross section tentatively. To better explore the optimized cleaning parameters relatively, we have made standard samples of adhesive to get better cleaning effect. These results will provide the reference value to our following study.
The study of terahertz band has been widely concerned, and the combination of metamaterials and various reconstruction mechanisms has made great progress in recent years. In this paper, we simulate the effect of splitting the gallium arsenide(GaAs) layer with different conductivity in the twisted split-ring resonator(SRR) pairs structure on the inductive coupling strength. We find that with the increase of the conductivity of the doped GaAs layer, the transmittance of the nonresonant region decreases, the resonance intensity decreases, and the frequency shows a blue-shift. When the conductivity increases to more than 64 S/m, the two resonant dips merge into one, and the inductive coupling gradually weakens until disappears. At the same time, we simulate the current and electric field diagram to confirm our results. Our findings are helpful to adjust the resonant intensity of metamaterials by optical pumping or DC bias in the following experiments, which improves the basic understanding of metamaterials and reconfiguration mechanisms.
Artificial metamaterials with appropriate design can exhibit unique electromagnetic phenomena which do not exist in natural materials. Some studies have shown that the method of breaking the geometric symmetry is capable to modify the electromagnetic response, such as the metamaterial induced transparency in the Fano resonators. In this work, by using the finite-difference time-domain method, we firstly simulate the process that terahertz wave interacts with double-bar structures, in which one bar length is fixed at 36 μm and the other bar length is set to be 12, 24, 36, 48, and 56 μm, respectively. The incident terahertz polarization is along the bar direction. Simulated results show when the variable bar length is less than 36 μm, there is only one obvious resonant dip in transmission spectrum. Meanwhile, with the decreased bar length, this dip frequency presents a slight blueshift. Additionally, by tuning the spacing vertical to bar direction between these two bars, it still exhibits one dip. This result indicates the short bar less than 36 μm does not play important role and the coupling between vertical bars is weak. However, when the variable bar length is larger than 36 μm there are two obvious Fano-shaped resonant dips. With the increased bar length, the low-frequency dip shows a remarkable redshift, while the high-frequency one is almost unchanged. By further tuning the bar spacing vertical to the bar direction, two dips always exist. This phenomenon implies that the coupling between horizontal bars is dominated in this process. Moreover, the metamaterial induced transparency window is found between two resonant dips. The appearance of the resonances is attributed to the excitation of trapped mode. Our obtained results indicate that such metamaterials with very simple configuration could also provide the potential application in the field of terahertz slow-light devices, amplitude and phase modulators.
In this paper, we use the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method to simulate and study the electromagnetic response characteristics of ring and arc-shaped resonators. Firstly, we study the terahertz transmission properties of two single-ring resonators with different radii. Either the single-ring resonator with a large radius or with a small radius only has one resonance in the transmission spectra. Then, we combine those resonators into a double-ring resonator structure. The results conclude that the two resonant frequencies of the double-ring resonator are caused by the simple superposition of the resonances of the large and small radius single-ring resonators, respectively. Additionally, on the basis of a single-ring resonator, we also study the influence of the symmetrical and asymmetric arc-shaped resonators on electromagnetic response characteristics. The ring resonator is split from the middle into two symmetrical arc-shaped resonators. As the width of the middle gap gradually increases, the resonant frequency shows blueshift and the intensity of the surface current distribution gradually weakens. Finally, the direction of the current is reversed. In order to further compare the relationship between the single-ring resonators and the double-ring resonators, we study the double arc-shaped resonators. The main purpose of this paper is to study the frequency response characteristics of the ring resonator in the terahertz band and to control the terahertz spectrum by changing the symmetry of the ring resonator. In the future, we can further study the coupling response between the ring structures and the multi-frequency response modulation of the multi-ring structures.
We investigate two dipoles which are attached or separated with the orthogonal arrangement in the terahertz frequency. These results show that the metasurface could achieve the resonance coupling and polarization conversion effect. There are two resonance dips in the transmission spectra, when these two dipoles are attached to form the L-shaped structure. With the spacing between vertical and horizontal dipoles separated, the broadband of the resonator becomes narrower and resonance dips merge into one deeper dip due to the superposition of the interaction of two dipoles. The loss of the energy is not only coupled to the free space but also converted to the cross-polarization. The broadband and the strength of the crosspolarization are modulated by changing the distance between the vertical and horizontal dipoles. Tuning the spacing, we control the co- and cross polarization of the broadband and the strength at the same time. This modulation provides the functionally potential applications in the terahertz modulators and filters.
Asymmetric split-ring resonators (SRRs) exhibit different resonant modes and phenomena that do not have in symmetric structure, such as Fano resonance, electromagnetic induced transparency, and plasma resonance hybridization. The asymmetric SRR was first confirmed to produce narrow linewidth resonance and has a high quality factor. Then it extends to the terahertz and near infrared bands. It has been found that the most common way to modulate the electromagnetic response characteristics is to change the asymmetry of the SRR and the coupling strength between the resonators. Here we use the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method to simulate the electromagnetic response characteristics of asymmetric structures. When the polarization direction along the bottom bar of the U-shaped structure, there are two similar resonance dips like those in typical SRR structure. When the incident wave is perpendicular to the bottom bar, there is only one dipole resonance. However, with the broken of the symmetry, the resonant behaviors will change. In horizontal direction, both the resonant frequency and transmittance has changed. In the vertical polarization, there are three resonant dips in transmission spectrum. Meanwhile a sharp window appears in transmission spectrum. In addition, when we turn the bottom bar of the U-shaped structure into the arc shape, we just find very slight change in frequency-shift and modulation depth in both cases, showing the impact of the short arc is nearly equivalent to the linear dipole resonance. Our obtained results indicate that we could tune the electromagnetic resonances in metamaterials and the interaction mechanism with terahertz wave.
Artificial metamaterials with appropriate design can exhibit unique electromagnetic phenomena which do not exist in natural materials. Some studies have shown that the method of breaking the geometric symmetry is capable to modify the electromagnetic responses. Here, we simulated and measured the transmission spectra of period arrays of subwavelength double-bar structure. The obtained results show the trapped-mode resonance with Fano-shaped spectrum can be induced in terahertz metamaterial with asymmetric double-bar structure, accompanied with a metamaterial induced transparency window between two resonant dips. And the bar spacing and lattice constant have great impact on the coupling strength concerned with the transparency position and spectral lineshape. We attribute there are two mechanisms together determine the coupling pattern between the bar array and the terahetz wave, the coupling between the bars of the same unit cell and the coupling between the bars of the neighbouring cells. Our obtained results indicate that such metamaterial with very simple configuration could also provide the potential application in the field of terahertz slow-light devices, amplitude and phase modulators.
By utilizing terahertz time-domain spectroscopy and fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, several kinds of traditional Chinese pigments have been investigated covering the spectral region 0.25 THz- 7 THz. The experimental results demonstrate that all pigments studied in the present work show a series of characteristic absorption spectra, which are unique to the pigment species. According to the fingerprint spectra, we can confirm that the traditional Chinese pigments have been applied to the heritage buildings and artworks. Compared with X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy and near-infrared spectroscopic techniques, these experimental results reveal that terahertz time-domain spectroscopy could further fill their physical information what other techniques cannot obtain.
Compared with the wide application of liquid crystals (LCs) in the visible frequency band, their properties in the
terahertz band have not been investigated extensively yet. In this paper, we have investigated the optical anisotropy of
LCs TEB30A and 9023 at room temperature using terahertz time-domain spectroscopy (THz-TDS). The extraordinary
and ordinary refraction indices of LC TEB30A are ne≈1.84 and no≈1.65, or a birefringence of 0.19 from 0.5 to 2.2
THz. The extraordinary and ordinary refraction indices of LC 9023 are ne≈1.83 and no≈1.62, or a birefringence of
0.21 from 0.5 to 2.2 THz. LC 9023 exhibits a little larger terahertz birefringence than that of LC TEB30A.
Metamaterials with subwavelength structural features show unique electromagnetic responses that are unattainable with natural materials. Modulation property is regarded as one of the most important features of metamaterials. At present, the development of such terahertz switches and modulators are relatively slow. So the research of the terahertz metamaterial is very meaningful. The light-control modulation, for example, could control the resonance characteristics of split ring resonators (SRRs) by changing dielectric property of the light layer. Due to the complicated effect in photo-excited layer, we could simplify the research to firstly study the influence of substrate’s refractive index on the resonant behaviors, providing the way to further the investigation of complex problems. In addition, the shape and size of metal microstructure can produce important effect on electromagnetic response. Therefore, based on the finite-difference time-domain method, we have also simulated several SRR structures with different geometry. We find the calculated terahertz transmission spectra exhibit remarkable change, showing that the resonant dips have a red-shift phenomenon and the bandwidth gets narrow with the increased refractive index as well as the structure size. Compared with the geometry effect, the red-shift is more sensitive to the change in refractive index. This work could help us to choose the suitable substrate materials for sample fabrication to realize the specific features.
Metamaterials with subwavelength structural features show unique electromagnetic responses that are unattainable with
natural materials. Recent research on these artificial materials has been pushed forward to the terahertz region because of
potential applications in biological fingerprinting, security imaging, remote sensing, and high frequency magnetic and
electric resonant devices. Active control of their properties could further facilitate and open up new applications in terms
of modulation and switching. Liquid crystals, which have been the subject of research for more than a century, have the
unique properties for the development of many other optical components such as light valves, tunable filters and tunable
lenses. In this paper, we investigated the transmitted spectral modulation in terahertz range by using liquid crystals (5CB
and TEB300) covering on the fabricated double-ring resonators to realize the shift of the resonance frequency. Our
obtained results indicate the low frequency resonance shows the obvious blue-shift, while the location of high frequency
resonance is nearly unchanged. We believe this phenomenon is related to not only the refractive index of the covering
liquid crystals but also the resonant mechanism of both resonances.
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