Simulation of the non-thermal effects of strong field terahertz pulses on tumor cells

Terahertz waves have potential of non-thermal regulation of cell physiological activities. Especially, the non-thermal effects of strong field terahertz pulses on the physical and chemical properties of cells and membrane structure need to be studied in detail. Therefore, this article uses the finite element method (FEM) to simulate and study the effects of strong field terahertz pulses on the cell membrane and nucleus membrane of cells. The simulation results show that both the single-frequency terahertz wave generated by CTFEL and wide-band terahertz pulses generated by lithium niobate crystal could cause a huge potential difference between cell membrane and nucleus membrane of the suspended spherical cell, which might lead to electroporation of the cell membrane or nucleus membrane.