Co-sponsored by: EMC27

New Frontiers in Terahertz Technology

Speaker(s): Prof. Mona Jarrahi,

Agenda:

Abstract:

Although unique potentials of terahertz waves for chemical identification, material characterization, biological sensing, and medical imaging have been recognized for quite a while, the relatively poor performance, higher costs, and bulky nature of current terahertz systems continue to impede their deployment in field settings. In this talk, I will describe some of our recent results on developing fundamentally new terahertz electronic/optoelectronic components and imaging/spectrometry architectures to mitigate performance limitations of existing terahertz systems. In specific, I will introduce new designs of high-performance photoconductive terahertz sources that utilize plasmonic nanoantennas to offer terahertz radiation at record-high power levels of several milliwatts – demonstrating more than three orders of magnitude increase compared to the state of the art. I will describe that the unique capabilities of these plasmonic nanoantennas can be further extended to develop terahertz detectors and heterodyne spectrometers with quantum-level detection sensitivities over a broad terahertz bandwidth at room temperatures, which has not been possible through existing technologies. To achieve this significant performance improvement, plasmonic nanoantennas and device architectures are integrated with on-chip optical sources. Therefore, our results pave the way to compact and low-cost terahertz imaging, spectroscopy, and spectrometry systems that could offer numerous opportunities for e.g., medical imaging and diagnostics, atmospheric sensing, pharmaceutical quality control, and security screening applications.  

Location:
Room: 1919
Bldg: 99
14820 Northeast 36th Street
Redmond, Washington
98052