Atmospheric Effects on Terahertz Wireless Communications

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The objective of this research is to assess the effects of atmospheric humidity, airborne particulates (such as rain, fog and smoke), and refractive index fluctuations (scintillations) on wireless THz communication links. The approach is to characterize a THz communication link from 100 - 2,000 GHz and compare its performance to a free-space infrared link. Both the infrared and THz radiation will co-propagate through the same atmospheric conditions. Several chambers will be fabricated to generate a variety of atmospheric conditions including fog, smoke, rain, as well as scintillations within the propagating beam path.Intellectual Merit: The research will provide yet unavailable experimental measurements and characterization of THz propagation under a variety of atmospheric conditions, which can be used to compare and validate various propagation models of THz radiation. The performance of THz and infrared wireless communication links, as determined by bit error rates, eye diagrams, transmitted power loss, data rate, and other parameters, will be compared under the same atmospheric conditions. Broader Impacts: The broader impacts of the project include the development of integrated laboratory modules for use in graduate and undergraduate education and research, the participation of students from underrepresented groups in the research project, and the broad dissemination of educational modules and scientific data to other groups conducting research in atmospheric modeling and wireless THz communications.