Guided terahertz technology and systems

我们过去五年的研究计划以太赫兹(THz)技术的进步为目标。通过几笔大笔赠款和与工业界的伙伴关系，这项工作得到了促进，从而产生了大量的专门知识和许多合作。通过这一新的发现赠款申请，我们寻求在几个有希望的新方向创造新技术，这些新方向已经在我们之前的活动中确定。这项工作以太赫兹导波技术和系统为中心，包括三个主要领域：太赫兹源和探测器、太赫兹波导技术和太赫兹系统集成。一个主要的目标是开发组件和系统，其中太赫兹波完全被限制在波导结构中，而不是像今天的系统中通常所做的那样像自由空间波束那样辐射。预计这项工作将产生基于太赫兹的工具和仪器，它们将提供比今天的自由空间太赫兹技术更高的动态范围、更低的成本和更广泛的实用。*我们最近对源和探测器的工作是出于对更高传输功率和更好接收器灵敏度的要求，以及对在1550 nm附近使用光泵波长的渴望，在这种波长下，为电信开发的激光器和组件比通常使用的更短波长的激光和组件要便宜得多。新提出的研究重点是利用具有纳米级等离子体电极结构的光导器件来提高效率，并在砷化镓等材料中实现中禁带吸收，将操作转移到1550 nm。这些方法在降低成本的同时，输出功率或接收器灵敏度至少提高了10倍。*我们最近在太赫兹应用的低损耗波导领域做出了重大贡献，展示了实用的缝隙线结构。未来工作的目标是将这些低损耗波导整合到太赫兹系统中，并改善与光源和探测器的耦合，以形成更有效的系统。*太赫兹系统的工作目标是从光导体芯片直接激励低损耗波导，以使太赫兹系统具有更高的实用性和动态范围。其他新的系统概念将被开发出来。特别令人感兴趣的是一种新的光谱仪系统，它使用相干来取代传统的时域或频域系统，具有相当大的降低成本的潜力。*太赫兹仪器在各种工业和科学应用中变得重要，因为辐射是非电离的(安全的)，并通过感兴趣的材料提供独特的传播特性。目前的应用领域包括工业检测、药理学和成像。通过实现该项目的目标，这些领域以及信息和通信行业的未来应用将成为可能。

Our research program over the past five years has targeted the advancement of terahertz (THz) technology. This work has been facilitated through several major grants and partnerships with industry leading to considerable expertise and numerous collaborations. With this new Discovery Grant application, we seek to create new technology in several promising new directions that have been identified in our prior activities. This work is centered on Guided Terahertz Technology and Systems and comprises three main areas: THz sources and detectors, THz waveguide technology and THz system integration. A major objective is to develop components and systems in which THz waves are entirely confined within waveguide structures, rather than radiating as free-space beams as is typically done in today's systems. It is anticipated that this work will result in terahertz-based tools and instruments that will offer higher dynamic range, lower cost, and more widespread utility than today's free-space terahertz technology.***Our recent work with sources and detectors was motivated by the requirements of higher transmitted power and better receiver sensitivity, and by the desire to work with optical pump wavelengths near 1550 nm where lasers and components developed for telecommunications are far less expensive than those commonly used shorter wavelengths. Newly proposed research focuses on the use of photoconductor devices with nano-scale plasmonic electrode structures to improve efficiency and mid-band-gap absorption in Gallium Arsenide and other materials to shift operation to 1550 nm. These approaches offer at least a factor of 10 increase in output power or receiver sensitivity while reducing cost. ***We have recently made substantial contributions in the area of low-loss waveguides for terahertz applications, demonstrating practical slot-line structures. An objective for future work is to incorporate these low-loss waveguides into THz systems and improve the coupling to sources and detectors to make more efficient systems.***Work in THz systems targets the direct excitation of low-loss waveguides from photoconductor chips to enable terahertz systems with increased utility and dynamic range. Other novel systems concepts will be developed. Of particular interest is a novel spectrometer system that uses coherence to replace conventional time- or frequency-domain systems, with considerable potential reduction in cost.***THz instruments have become important in a variety of industrial and scientific applications, as the radiation is non-ionizing (safe) and offers unique propagation characteristics through interesting materials. Present applications are found in industrial inspection, pharmacology, and imaging. Future applications in these areas and information and communications industries will be enabled through realization of the goals of this project.