Latest Terahertz radiation Stories

System Would Safely Detect Ionization of Air Surrounding Containers Holding Radioactive Material COLLEGE PARK, Md., Nov. 22, 2010 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The shipment of cargo containers is a critical component of international trade and plays a fundamental role in the global economy. According to the U.S. Bureau of Customs and Border Protection, about 90 percent of the world's trade is transported in cargo containers, with almost half of incoming U.S. trade arriving by containers aboard...

ANN ARBOR, Mich., Nov. 11, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- Advanced Photonix, Inc.® (NYSE Amex: API) announced today that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) awarded API's subsidiary, Picometrix, LLC a Phase I Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract. The $100,000, six month contract is designed to demonstrate the feasibility of integrating a hand-held time-domain terahertz (TD-THz) inspection wand with other sensor technologies to create a multi-sensor based approach for detection...

As if borrowing from a scene in a science fiction movie, researchers at Kyoto University have successfully developed a kind of tractor beam that can be used to manipulate networks of molecules. In a paper soon to be published in Physical Review Letters, the team has demonstrated a technique using terahertz pulses that could have broad applications in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries.Terahertz waves, an area of specialty for the Koichiro Tanaka lab at Kyoto University's Institute for...

University of Maryland researchers propose method to sniff out dirty bombs via the electromagnetic breakdown of airResearchers at the University of Maryland have proposed a scheme for detecting a concealed source of radioactive material without searching containers one by one. Detection of radioactive material concealed in shipping containers is important in the early prevention of "dirty" bomb construction. The concept, described in the Journal of Applied Physics, is based on the...

ANN ARBOR, Mich., Nov. 5, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- Advanced Photonix (API) today announced an agreement in principle with In-Q-Tel (IQT) to engineer a low cost terahertz anomaly detection device, and deliver multiple systems for evaluation. IQT, a not-for-profit, strategic investment firm that works on behalf of the U.S. Intelligence Community, is focused on identifying new and emerging commercial technologies that have the potential to give its customer agencies mission-advantage today and in...

It turns out the Herschel Space Observatory has a trick up its sleeve. The telescope, a European Space Agency mission with important NASA contributions, has proven to be excellent at finding magnified, faraway galaxies. Like little kids probing patches of dirt for insects, astronomers can use these new cosmic magnifying lenses to study galaxies that are hidden in dust."I was surprised to learn that Herschel is so good at finding these cosmic lenses," said Asantha Cooray of the...

Researchers at the Tufts University School of Engineering and Boston University have fabricated and characterized the first large area metamaterial structures patterned on implantable, bio-compatible silk substrates.The research, reported online July 21, 2010, in the journal Advanced Materials, provides a promising path towards the development of a new class of metamaterial-inspired implantable biosensors and biodetectors.  Metamaterials are artificial electromagnetic composites, typically...

ANN ARBOR, Mich., Aug. 12 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Advanced Photonix today announced that the Center for Research and Restoration of the Museums of France (C2RMF), located at the Louvre Palace has purchased a T-Ray 4000®, as its instrument of choice for performing investigations into art conservation and restoration using terahertz technology. The system, which will be located in the most prestigious art restoration research center in France, will be available to researchers from...

Advance in metamaterials leads to a new semiconductor laser suitable for security screening, chemical sensing and astronomyA collaborative team of applied scientists from Harvard University and the University of Leeds have demonstrated a new terahertz (THz) semiconductor laser that emits beams with a much smaller divergence than conventional THz laser sources. The advance, published in the August 8th issue of Nature Materials, opens the door to a wide range of applications in terahertz...

Physicists in the United States and Germany have discovered a way to use a gallium arsenide nanodevice as a signal processor at "terahertz" speeds, the first time it's been used for this purpose and an important step forward in the new world of optical communication and computing.Existing communications and computer architecture are increasingly being limited by the pedestrian speed of electrons moving through wires, and the future of high-speed communication and computing is in optics,...