History

The Final Frontier

Mankind has harnessed and used just about all of the electromagnetic spectrum. We have radar, microwave ovens, radios, cell phones, wireless communications, X-Rays, lasers, and so on. Yet, there is one area of the electromagnetic spectrum that has yet to be harnessed and exploited. This area is called the Terahertz Gap. It is an area that lies between microwave and infrared frequencies.

Mankind has harnessed and used just about all of the electromagnetic spectrum. We have radar, microwave ovens, radios, cell phones, wireless communications, X-Rays, lasers, and so on. Yet, there is one area of the electromagnetic spectrum that has yet to be harnessed and exploited. This area is called the Terahertz Gap. It is an area that lies between microwave and infrared frequencies.

The THz Gap

This area of the spectrum is extremely important. It is the most scientifically rich band of frequencies in the entire spectrum. Researchers have discovered over the past 20 years that organic molecules resonate at frequencies in this range. This means that the presence and composition of organic matter can be detected by a "Terahertz radar" sending out terahertz frequencies. This has many very interesting applications. The military and other security organizations are requesting a hand held Terahertz radar to remotely detect the presence of explosive materials, poison gases, ceramic weapons, and biological warfare agents like viruses and bacteria. The Medical community has shown that Terahertz Waves can detect the presence of Cancer, viruses, bacteria, and other diseases instantly without surgery, biopsies, or other expensive procedures making this an important and urgent application of Terahertz waves. Pharmaceutical and Agricultural companies are investigating the use of Terahertz waves in quality control and research.

Unique Characteristics

Harmless Non-Ionizing Radiation (Low Human Safety Risk)

Compared to X-Ray, terahertz radiation is not harmful to humans.  Ionizing radiation is characterized as having sufficient energy to remove an electron from an atom or molecule.  Since THz light is non-ionizing, terahertz applications can be used safely and effectively.

• All warm bodies naturally emit THz radiation
• High frequency implies broad bandwidth and very high wireless data transmission rates
• Unprecedented, high resolution imaging
• Able to penetrate clothing and non-metallic materials up to 100 meters distant (normal air, fog and sandstorm conditions)
• THz radiation enables imaging through clothing, bandages, and packaging materials
• Unambiguous identification of molecular species (fingerprint)
• Complex molecules such as chem/bio agents and pathogens can be unambiguously identified in real time by their resonant signatures in THz band at stand-off distances
• Unique chemical signatures of molecular species for unambiguous identification (fingerprint capability)
• Distinctively different propagation of THz in different types of human tissue enables cancer detection
• Selective heating below surface of the skin will enabling wrinkle smoothing