A team of researchers from the University of Leeds have developed the world’s most powerful terahertz laser chip.
An MRI machine is big and expensive. Demand for portable health imaging technology is on the rise.
Last year, a group from Vienna University of Technology reported that they recorded an output of 0.47 Watt from a single laser facet, but that record has since been smashed with the team from Leeds now having recorded an output of over 1 Watt.
Terahertz waves are capable of penetrating materials that can block visible light, and so there are quite a few uses for this type of technology.* Some practical applications of terahertz lasers may include chemical analysis, security scanning, medical imaging and telecommunications.* The technology’s use in security is especially intriguing since it is highly adaptable to things like scanning a package for explosives or other harmful chemicals.
One of the main obstacles, however, is that it takes some time to develop a terahertz radiation device that is powerful but yet also compact.
“Although it is possible to build large instruments that generate powerful beams of terahertz radiation, these instruments are only useful for a limited set of applications,” said Edmund Linfield, Professor of Terahertz Electronics at Leeds.* “We need terahertz lasers that not only offer high power but are also portable and low cost.”
Linfield went on the credit Leeds engineers for their expertise in fabricating highly complex semiconductor materials that eventually helped them to create the amazingly powerful and small laser chip.
“The process of making these lasers are extraordinarily delicate.* Layers of different semiconductors such as gallium arsenide are built up one atomic monolayer *at a time.* We control the thickness and composition of each individual layer very accurately and build a semiconductor material of between typically 1,000 and 2,000 layers,” he said.
Source: phys
Read More: http://ift.tt/1bZr3iT
Last year, a group from Vienna University of Technology reported that they recorded an output of 0.47 Watt from a single laser facet, but that record has since been smashed with the team from Leeds now having recorded an output of over 1 Watt.
Terahertz waves are capable of penetrating materials that can block visible light, and so there are quite a few uses for this type of technology.* Some practical applications of terahertz lasers may include chemical analysis, security scanning, medical imaging and telecommunications.* The technology’s use in security is especially intriguing since it is highly adaptable to things like scanning a package for explosives or other harmful chemicals.
One of the main obstacles, however, is that it takes some time to develop a terahertz radiation device that is powerful but yet also compact.
“Although it is possible to build large instruments that generate powerful beams of terahertz radiation, these instruments are only useful for a limited set of applications,” said Edmund Linfield, Professor of Terahertz Electronics at Leeds.* “We need terahertz lasers that not only offer high power but are also portable and low cost.”
Linfield went on the credit Leeds engineers for their expertise in fabricating highly complex semiconductor materials that eventually helped them to create the amazingly powerful and small laser chip.
“The process of making these lasers are extraordinarily delicate.* Layers of different semiconductors such as gallium arsenide are built up one atomic monolayer *at a time.* We control the thickness and composition of each individual layer very accurately and build a semiconductor material of between typically 1,000 and 2,000 layers,” he said.
Source: phys
Read More: http://ift.tt/1bZr3iT
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