I am the Principal Scientific Investigator in this field and hold the French Habilitation à Diriger des Recherches (HDR), the highest academic qualification authorizing the independent supervision of doctoral research in France. In this role, I lead and coordinate research projects in the field, overseeing their scientific direction, implementation, and development.
What are terahertz waves?
Terahertz imaging
Terahertz imaging uses non-ionizing electromagnetic waves, which means it is safe for biological tissues and poses no risk to human health. Terahertz waves can penetrate through many materials that are opaque to X-rays, ultrasound, and even some infrared wavelengths. This makes it a useful technology for the non-destructive inspection of materials and structures.
Advantages of terahertz imaging:
- Non-invasive: As mentioned before, terahertz waves are non-ionizing, which makes them safe for living beings, which allows their use in the medical field for imaging biological tissues.
- High Contrast: Terahertz imaging visualizes subtle contrasts between different substances, which is valuable for identifying materials and detecting hidden substances, such as weapons, drugs or explosives.
- Imaging through certain materials: Terahertz waves can pass through materials such as plastic, paper, fabric, ceramics, and even some layers of paint, making them useful in quality control and materials analysis applications.
Applications of terahertz imaging:
- Medicine: Terahertz imaging can be used medicine for early detection of skin cancers, breast cancer marging analysis without any chemical markers.
- Security: At airports and security checkpoints, terahertz imaging can detect objects concealed under clothing without compromising individual privacy, contributing to public safety. This technology is maybe in low frequency part of THz band, from tens of GHz to 300 GHz.
- Quality Control: Industry uses terahertz imaging to inspect manufactured materials, including plastics, ceramics, and composites, to detect defects or internal inconsistencies, thereby ensuring product quality.
- Art & heritage: Terahertz waves can be used for non-destructive analysis of historical and archaeological objects, allowing the inner layers of ancient paintings or materials to be viewed without damaging the objects themselves.
- Industrial process control: Terahertz imaging is used to monitor and control certain industrial processes, particularly in the pharmaceutical and food industries. We can control moisture level and detect inclusions.
- Chemical Composition Mapping: Terahertz imaging can identify and map the chemical composition of materials, which is valuable in research and quality control.
- Science: Terahertz imaging can be used to explore physical phenomena, study matter, and analyze specific properties of materials.
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