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What is Terahertz Technology?

ëItrefers to the research and development of

devices operating at Terahertz frequencies.
 What are T-
T-rays?

THz range is roughly defined as frequency 0.1 ±

10 THz
wavelength 0.03 ± 3 mm
energy 0.4 ± 40 meV
Technical characteristics

ë Penetrating ability: THz wave has ability to

penetrate a wide verity of non conducting
materials like paper, plastic, wood and
ceramics.
ë T rays penetrate everything except
Metals which reflect them
Water which absorb them
ë Non-ionizing property: Meaning that unlike X-
rays they do not do damage to human tissues
or DNA.
THz imaging and Sensing

u THz imaging can be explained using the concept of

2D spectroscopy.
u The principle is based on scanning the sample
through the focus of a THz time domain
spectroscopy transmission.
u THz-TDS directly measures the temporal electric
field.
THz--TDS
THz
u THz spectroscopy can be used to find the
spectral features of a wide range of
molecules, once these features are known it
is possible to use these features to identify
molecules remotely.
u Explosive detection system uses these
process, could be placed at airports to
detect explosives.
THz Sources
‡ Incoherent thermal sources
‡ Broad-band pulsed sources
‡ Photo switches
‡ Optical rectification
‡ Accelerators
‡ Narrowband CW sources
‡ Molecular lasers
‡ RF up conversion, optical
down conversion
‡ Semiconductor cascade lasers
Potential Applications
u Security and Defense applications
u Chemical Analysis
u Communications
u Space applications
u Atmospheric Sensing(environmental
studies)
u Medical Applications
Defense and Security applications
u The amazing ability of THz to penetrate through
food, package materials allows nondestructive and
non-ionization inspection(without opening them) for
e.g.. Food mail packages in post office and
luggage at airport security check points to find out
concealed drugs or pathogenic agents like anthrax.
u Detection and identification of explosives.
Hidden weapon detection with THz waves
The machine creates a 3-d image of the passenger's
body
then sends it to a viewing station in another room
where a
TSA agent looks for potential threats.

Passenger imaging technology, so it allows us to see

the entire image of the passenger's body and anything
that might be hidden on the person.

The new technology includes new privacy protection

also.
The screener in the viewing room can't see the
passenger's
face and the images from the machine are deleted,
once the
Chemical analysis

u Inspection of chemical mixtures is done by THz

spectroscopic imaging using known spectral
data of the pure chemical components.
u This method, which is based on the principle
component analysis, can determine the
existence of chemicals, identifies them and
map the spectral distribution of each
component and measure their content in a
target.
u By using this method , we can determine
qualitatively and quantitatively the components
not only pure chemical samples but also
mixtures.
Communications
Frequencies higher than microwave offer many
benefits for the communication technology.
Broad bandwidth for high data rate information
transmission.
Small antenna and equipment size.

The obvious disadvantage of communication at

THz arises from the strong absorption through
atmosphere caused by water vapor as well as the
low power available from existing sources.
THz light is heavily absorbed by the
atmosphere, and especially by water.

Atmospheric absorption spectrum

Note that the vertical axis is a log of a log scale!

song distance atmospheric transmission is very challenging

(but possible for ~100 m or so).
Despite these disadvantages, many
communications are possible.
ëSatellite-to-Satellite communication
ëIndoor wireless communications
ëWireless covert communication
 °
  
  
 
 

From: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2004-291
Medical applications
u THz waves ( meV photon energy) are
non-ionizing and so much safer than
X-rays(keV photon energy).
Detection of a tumor, an application of
Teraview research into distinguishing types of
tissue
 
 



Tumors appear to have different THz
absorption properties from normal tissue.
metastasis

healthy tissue paraffin

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THz Sensors
u Sensors also play an important role in THz
technology however they are far more developed
than sources at this time and so will not be
discussed in depth.
u A photo mixer can also be used to detect THz
waves by mixing them with a beam of known
frequency, the differences can be detected and the
source beam decoded.
u Currently there are near-quantum-limited detectors
that can measure both broadband or extremely
narrowband signals up to or exceeding 1 THz.
Conclusion
Terahertz Technology is already being
marketed, mainly for medical and military
applications, and continuing advancements
in the field will see many new applications
being realized and many industries being
revolutionized (particularly in terms of non-
destructive testing).