Engineers report first room-temperature semicon T-rays
R&D magazine

May 19, 2008

Engineers and applied physicists from Harvard Univ. have demonstrated  =

the first room-temperature electrically-pumped semiconductor source  =

of coherent terahertz (THz) radiation, also known as T-rays. The  =

breakthrough in laser technology, based upon commercially available  =

nanotechnology, has the potential to become a standard terahertz  =

source to support applications ranging from security screening to  =

chemical sensing.


Spearheaded by research associate Mikhail Belkin and Federico  =

Capasso, Robert L. Wallace Professor of Applied Physics and Vinton  =

Hayes Senior Research Fellow in Electrical Engineering, both of  =

Harvard's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), the  =

findings are to be published in today=92s (May 19) issue of Applied  =

Physics Letters. The researchers have also filed for U.S. patents  =

covering the novel device.

Using lasers in the terahertz spectral range, which covers  =

wavelengths from 30 to 300=C5 ( =C5=3D100pm ), has long presented a major  =

hurdle to engineers. In particular, making electrically pumped room- =

temperature and thermoelectrically-cooled Terahertz semiconductor  =

lasers has been a major challenge. These devices require cryogenic  =

cooling, greatly limiting their use in everyday applications.




000000000000000000
Class       Hz                  wavelength
Y   		330EHz    	1pm
HX 		3Ehz		100pm
SX  		300PHz		1nm
EUV	30PHz 		10nm
NUV	3PHz		100nm
visible
NIR		30THz   		10um
MIR		3THz		100um    <-------
FIR		300GHz		1mm
EHF	30GHz		1cm
SHF	3Ghz          	10cm
( from Wikipedia )
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