Terahertz Imaging - Terahertz Bildgebung

Terahertz (THz) light is special since many materials like plastics and ceramics are transparent whereas many biomolecules have distinct spectral signatures or fingerprints. THz imaging is considered as a new tool in security screening at airports since clothing, plastic bags are transparent while drugs and metal objects are detectable.

My interest in exploring THz imaging is to ...

• detect nano-concentrations of biomolecules like proteins (see image: the total amount of aminoacids is 63 µg within a circle of 6 mm diameter. A single pixel on the sub-mm scale corresponds to 3 nmol per pixel. For details see E. Bründermann et al., Applications of semiconductor terahertz lasers in biomolecular spectroscopy and imaging, Proc. SPIE 6194, 619406 (2006) - Conference 6194: Millimeter-Wave and Terahertz Photonics, Strasbourg, April 6, 2006 (invited) - Link to pdf at SPIE).
• separate different biomolecules by correlating THz fingerprints with their structure

A THz image involves scanning a laser beam across a sample. Array detectors typically suffer from the fact that they are not sensitive enough or extremely expensive. However, our powerful unique THz laser allows to take an image in a single laser pulse onto a normal array. This means THz imaging might get as easy as taking a photograph with a digital camera in the future.