Degradation diagnosis of ultra-high-molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) by terahertz-time-domain spectroscopy

We present that degradation of ultra-high-molecular-weight-polyethylene induces drastic absorption-increase ranging continuously over the THz region. This demonstrates the possibility that THz-TDS is applied to quality-control of ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene, which is widely utilized in medical implants.