Biomedical THz imaging and spectroscopy: High sensitivity is both a blessing and a curse

Terahertz light is so strongly absorbed by water that a subtle change in sample water content, be it due to the presence of a medical condition or due to environmental conditions or storage, can affect the terahertz response. This makes it challenging to devise experimental protocols to investigate potential biomedical applications of terahertz imaging and spectroscopy. In this work we detail some of our methods to address these issues.