Guided terahertz technology and systems

在过去的五年里，我们的研究计划以太赫兹（THz）技术的进步为目标。这项工作通过几项主要赠款和与工业界的伙伴关系得到了促进，从而产生了大量的专业知识和众多合作。通过这项新的发现基金申请，我们寻求在几个有前途的新方向上创造新技术，这些方向已经在我们之前的活动中确定。这项工作以制导太赫兹技术和系统为中心，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。一个主要目标是开发组件和系统，其中太赫兹波完全限制在波导结构中，而不是像今天系统中典型的那样以自由空间光束辐射。预计这项工作将产生基于太赫兹的工具和仪器，与目前的自由空间太赫兹技术相比，这些工具和仪器将提供更高的动态范围、更低的成本和更广泛的用途。

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.