Scientists have developed a device engineered to capture terahertz-frequency waves, shortly known as T-rays, in microscopic holes which could be used to create scanners with higher sensitivity.
T-rays are consists of electromagnetic waves running at frequencies of 0.3 to 3 terahertz (THz). These waves are present in telescopes used by space stations such as the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope located at the Mauna Kea Observatory in Hawaii. It can provide resolutions so high that it can capture the dust clouds surrounding the Milky Way Galaxy and those nearby.
Other uses of T-rays are in medical imaging to detect epithelial cancer, security scanners to reveal hidden weapons in the airport, scientific use in chemistry and biochemistry, communication to capture signals from satellite to satellite or aircraft to aircraft, and manufacturing in inspecting packaged goods for quality control.
Scientists from the University of Adelaide, RMIT University in Melbourne, and Albert Ludwigs University in Freiburg, Germany worked altogether to detect the waves and capture it in a silicon surface. The silicon surface successfully captured the waves because of the microscale cavities designed by the Adelaide team.
The scientists believe that the medical and security function of the T-ray waves will be greatly improved because of this discovery. Scanners with higher sensitivity can be developed using the silicon device.
“We needed to carefully select appropriate materials and processes to produce this device. We couldn’t construct the microcavities in our first choice of material, so we changed to silicon, which we had to adapt to make it slightly electrically conductive,” wrote RMIT team leader Dr. Sharath Sriram in the report. “We then used established silicon microfabrication techniques to create the microcavities, exploiting the conductive properties.”
“By tailoring the silicon properties through the use of microstructures, it is possible to trap and confine the waves in a volume much smaller than the wavelength of the terahertz waves,” said Dr. Withawat Withayachumnankul, project leader and ARC postdoctoral fellow at the University of Adelaide’s School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering. “This significantly improves the efficiency of terahertz devices such as scanners and will have broad impact on biomedicine and homeland security, where better contrast means more accurate identification.”
The research report was published in the June 2013 issue of Advanced Optical Materials.
