The effect of dielectric relaxation in nanosecond pulse electroporation of biological cells

In order to model nanosecond pulse electroporation of the cell membrane the effect of dielectric relaxation of membrane molecules has to be considered. Since the formation of pores is a nonlinear process the dielectric relaxation effects have to be incorporated as dispersion in the time-domain. This paper presents the time-domain implementation of a second-order Debye dispersion model for a single-shell cell structure in COMSOL Multiphysics. The model is validated by comparison with frequency-domain simulation. Applying a nanosecond rise-time electric pulse to the cell shows that the transmembrane voltage increases more rapidly at the beginning of the pulse due to the dielectric relaxation effect.