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Home » Radio Archive » Daily Show » Terahertz Waves

Terahertz Waves

December 27, 2012
https://podcast.scienceupdate.com/121227_sciup_wave.mp3

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BOB HIRSHON (host):

Shrinking see-through scanners.  I’m Bob Hirshon and this is Science Update.

High-frequency terahertz waves can create sharp images of concealed objects, without the dangerous ionizing radiation of x-rays.  But until now, they’ve required bulky, expensive equipment in carefully controlled environments.  Now, Cal Tech electrical engineer Ali Hajimiri and his colleagues have found a way to generate a powerful terahertz signal from a microchip.  It involves coordinating the chip’s many transistors.

ALI HAJIMIRI (California Institute of Technology):

We came up with a way of making these transistors work in concert, together, each one of them contributing a little bit, but overall, collectively, they can generate and radiate the power.

HIRSHON:
Hajimiri says terahertz waves are not only a better and safer alternative to x-rays, but they also have other applications, like detecting cancer cells and chemical traces of bombs or drugs. I’m Bob Hirshon for AAAS, the Science Society.

A terahertz scanner, which now fits on a silicon chip, can detect hidden objects like this bullet and knife blade inside a stuffed toy. (Kaushik Sengupta/Caltech)
Location and frequency range of Terahertz waves in the electromagnetic spectrum (Tatoute/Wikipedia)
Category: Daily Show, Station DownloadTag: Biology, Genetics & Evolution
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