Effect of pore conformation on dielectric anisotropy of oven-dry wood evaluated using terahertz time-domain spectroscopy and eigenvalue problems for two-dimensional photonic crystals

Abstract

To clarify the effect of pore conformation on the dielectric anisotropy of wood, the relative permittivity along the longitudinal and tangential axes of flat-sawn oven-dry specimens of 12 different wood species was measured using terahertz time-domain transmission spectroscopy and compared with the values calculated using the eigenvalue problem for two-dimensional photonic crystals. The measured dielectric anisotropy, which is the ratio of the relative permittivity along longitudinal axis to that along the tangential axis, was well explained by the calculated value. It was concluded that the ratio of tangential to radial widths of wood pores affects the relative permittivity along the tangential axis, and that the dielectric anisotropy decreased with an increase in the ratio. This discussion can also be applied to the relative permittivity in frequencies below 0.15 THz. These findings show promise as a new method for evaluating the porous structure of wood. © 2014 The Japan Wood Research Society.