Dream Fellowship - Professor Edmund Linfield

在过去的15-20年里，太赫兹（THz）频率科学与工程领域取得了显著的发展，现已成为一项充满活力的国际跨学科研究活动。然而，尽管国际社会作出了长期努力，但由于缺乏紧凑的固态源，在获取和利用电磁频谱的这一中心区域（频率为300千兆赫至10太赫兹）方面仍然存在困难。尽管存在这些困难，太赫兹频谱频率范围的潜在应用范围是巨大的，包括：天文学；制药过程监控；无线通信;皮肤病学的成像;以及凝聚态物理和纳米结构的研究。同样，在开发太赫兹光源方面也取得了很大进展，国际上特别关注于2002年首次演示的太赫兹量子级联激光器（qcl）的开发。太赫兹研究人员面临着许多令人兴奋的挑战。我特别感兴趣的问题是：1)我们如何在太赫兹频率范围内测量凝聚态物质系统（无论是半导体、超导还是磁性）和纳米结构？在低温和强磁场下，会发现什么新的、基本的物理现象？2)我们能否同时利用光子和电子技术来设计太赫兹量子激光器，使其像固态半导体器件一样无处不在？太赫兹qcl能否满足星载技术对太赫兹天文学的严格要求？3)太赫兹辐射可以用于研究生物材料，特别是在细胞水平上吗？毫无疑问，为了在太赫兹频谱范围内最大限度地发挥影响，需要科学和工程研究人员之间的跨学科合作。这提出了许多挑战，而正是这些挑战，我将通过这个奖学金来探索。该奖学金将使我从目前的大学教学/行政工作中解脱出来，并使我能够专注于解决这些关键问题，从而确定未来十年乃至更长时间内太赫兹科学与工程领域的国际议程。这将使我有机会长期访问国际顶尖的研究人员，这是大学承诺通常不可能做到的。通过这些访问，我不仅将在太赫兹领域开展新的研究活动，而且还将了解一些世界领先的研究人员如何发展创造性的想法，如何组建成功的研究团队，从学术人员到研究生，以及如何在传统界限之外进行跨学科研究。然后，我将把这些想法与迄今为止我用来建立研究团队和项目的方法结合起来，并使用英国境内的专业组织为我的研究带来开发创造力的新方法。

The last 15-20 years have witnessed a remarkable growth in the field of terahertz (THz) frequency science and engineering, which has now become a vibrant, international, cross-disciplinary research activity. Yet, despite long-standing efforts by the international community, difficulties remain in accessing and exploiting this central region of the electromagnetic spectrum (300 GHz to 10 THz in frequency) owing to the lack of compact, solid state, sources. Notwithstanding these difficulties, the range of potential applications for the THz frequency range of the spectrum is enormous, and includes: astronomy; pharmaceutical process monitoring; wireless communications; dermatological imaging; and the study of condensed matter physics and nanostructures. Equally, much progress has been made in developing THz sources, with a specific international focus being on the development of THz quantum cascade lasers (QCLs), which were first demonstrated in 2002. Many exciting challenges face THz researchers. Of particular interest to me are questions such as:1) How can we measure condensed matter systems (whether semiconducting, superconducting or magnetic), and nanostructures, in the THz frequency range? What new, fundamental, physics will be revealed, especially at cryogenic temperatures and at high magnetic fields? 2) Can one engineer THz QCLs both photonically and electronically to make a source that is as ubiquitous as solid state, semiconductor devices are in other parts of the spectrum? Can THz QCLs meet the stringent requirements of space-borne technology for THz astronomy? 3) Can THz radiation be used to study biological materials, especially at a cellular level? It is undoubtedly true that to maximise impact across the THz spectral range, there is a requirement for inter-disciplinary collaboration between researchers across science and engineering. This presents many challenges, and it is such challenges that I will explore through this Fellowship. The Fellowship will free up my time from current University teaching/administrative commitments, and allow me to focus on addressing such key issues, and hence define the international agenda for the next decade and beyond in the field of THz science and engineering. It will allow me to have extended visits to leading international researchers, in a way that it is not normally possible with University commitments. From these visits, I will not only develop new research activities in the THz field, but also understand how some of the world's leading researchers develop creative ideas, assemble successful research teams from academic staff through to graduate students, and undertake cross-disciplinary research outside the traditional boundaries. I will then take these ideas, combine them with the metods that I have used to build research teams and projects to date, and use professional organisations within the UK to bring new approaches for developing creativity to my research.