Terahertz Chemical Microscope for intelligent sensing and chemical analysis

电磁频谱的太赫兹（THz）部分，位于电子频率（>0.1 THz）和光子频率（< 30 THz）之下，代表了光的商业应用的最后前沿。许多应用是可能的，这些太赫兹脉冲。然而，THz辐射的一些特性阻碍了其在工业中的广泛应用。首先，太赫兹辐射对极性液体（例如水）具有高度吸收性，因此难以用于涉及大多数水性介质的应用。其次，即使对于纯材料，太赫兹吸收光谱也是复杂的，因此常规太赫兹光谱学迅速失去其识别复杂混合物的有效性，这是人们在真实的世界中经常面临的。 在这个战略项目中，我们建议研究一种新的THz传感和成像方法，该方法基于一种使用THz辐射监测化学反应的全新概念，称为THz化学显微镜（TCM）。这种技术使用来自专门制造的传感板的THz发射（而不是吸收）来检测各种化学物质，因此不会受到传统THz技术所面临的各种挑战。TCM的一个重要优点是传感是通过选择性地结合到待检测的化学品的传感膜来完成的。因此，不需要破译复杂的太赫兹光谱，TCM甚至可以用于具有非常低的太赫兹吸收的化学品。通过使用选择性结合不同化学物质的不同传感膜，TCM可用于传感各种各样的目标。拟议的战略项目旨在将TCM从替补席转移到商业，同时引入加拿大方面的新想法。我们认为中医药在对加拿大社会经济影响较大的行业中具有很大的应用潜力，如石油工业、生物传感和制药业。主要目标是改进和应用TCM，为这些部门开发独特的在线化学检测器和智能传感器。

The terahertz (THz) portion of the electromagnetic spectrum, lying above the frequencies of electronics (>0.1 THz) and below those of photonics (< 30 THz), represents the last frontier of the commercial applications of light. A multitude of applications are possible with these THz pulses. However, there are several characteristics of THz radiation that are holding back its widespread applications in industry. First, THz radiation is highly absorptive to polar liquids, such as water, thus making it difficult for applications involving most aqueous media. Secondly, THz absorption spectra are complicated even for pure materials, and thus conventional THz spectroscopy rapidly loses its effectiveness for identifying complex mixtures, which is what one frequently faces in the real world. In this Strategic project, we propose to work on a new method for THz sensing and imaging, which is based on a distinctly new concept for using THz radiation to monitor chemical reactions, named the THz Chemical Microscope (TCM). This technique uses THz emission (rather than absorption) from a specially fabricated sensing plate to detect various chemicals, and thus does not suffer from the various challenges that conventional THz technology experiences. An important advantage of the TCM is that sensing is done by a sensing film that bonds selectively to the chemical to be detected. Therefore, there is no need to decipher complicated THz spectra, and the TCM could even be used for chemicals that have very low THz absorption. By using different sensing films that bond selectively to different chemicals, the TCM could be used for sensing a wide variety of targets. The proposed Strategic project aims to transfer the TCM from bench side to business, while at the same time introducing new ideas from the Canadian side. We see high potential for TCM application in sectors with high socio-economic impact to Canada, such as the oil industry, biosensing, and pharmaceutics. The major goals are to improve and apply the TCM to develop unique on-line chemical detectors and intelligent sensors for these sectors.