Simultaneous composition and thickness measurement of paper using terahertz time-domain spectroscopy

We present a noncontact method for quantitative composition and thickness monitoring of flat sheet products using terahertz time-domain spectroscopy. We apply the method to obtain simultaneous measurement of thickness and moisture content of paper sheets. The paper is modeled as an effective medium of water mixed with fibers, and model parameters are estimated from fits to the measured transmission amplitude. We demonstrate the method on two different paper samples and obtain uncertainties that are comparable with existing sensor technology. Monte Carlo simulations indicate that these uncertainties can be reduced further by at least an order of magnitude. (C) 2009 Optical Society of America