Practical method to estimate the standard deviation in absorption coefficients measured with THz time-domain spectroscopy

A model of standard deviation in the intensity spectrum of electric field observed with the terahertz time-domain spectroscopy (THz-TDS) is proposed to estimate the random error in the transmittance and absorption coefficients from a single or a few measurements of a sample. The proposed standard deviation which is derived on the basis of the statistical standard deviation and noise floor of intensity spectrum of reference fits well to the standard deviation of transmittance as well as absorption coefficient computed statistically. This study contributes the simple and computationally efficient method to demonstrate the accuracy in optical constants like imaginary part of refractive index and absorption coefficients measured using the THz-TDS.