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Terahertz technology

Mind the gap

Nature Photonics volume 3, pages 131–132 (2009)Cite this article

Researchers in South Korea and the Netherlands have demonstrated that the enhancement of the electric field of terahertz radiation inside a nano-slit continues to grow, even when the slit becomes narrower than the skin depth of the material.

Research in the terahertz (THz) region of the electromagnetic spectrum (0.03–3 mm wavelength) has boomed since the appearance of solid-state coherent THz sources. The interest arises from the great potential of THz spectroscopy and imaging equipment. Applications include molecular recognition (many vibrational modes of molecules lie in the THz range) and security screening — dielectrics are mostly transparent to THz waves whereas metals are opaque, and plastic explosives and drugs present characteristic absorption lines. Other potential uses are the non-destructive analysis of biological tissue, which makes it possible to differentiate between fat and muscle, or between tumours and healthy tissue, for example.

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Figure 1: Computed electric field amplitude, E, and current, J, for a 70-nm-wide slit in a 60-nm-thick gold film.

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  1. Luis Martin-Moreno is in the Instituto de Ciencia de Materiales y Departamento de Fisica de la Materia Condensada, CSIC-Universidad de Zaragoza, C/Pedro Cerbuna 12, 50009 Zaragoza, Spain. lmm@unizar.es,

    Luis Martin-Moreno

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  1. Luis Martin-Moreno
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Martin-Moreno, L. Mind the gap. Nature Photon 3, 131–132 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2009.16

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2009.16

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