24 Oct 2007 Firefly-THz is a novel pulsed terahertz (THz) laser source that provides a unique combination of shoebox size, narrow linewidth output (tunable over a wide & continuous range), room temperature operation, and high output power and brightness. Terahertz (THz) waves, lying between the radio wave and far infrared regions of the electromagnetic spectrum, exhibit unique properties. Many common materials, hazardous substances, pharmaceuticals, disease markers and living tissues are semi-transparent at THz wavelengths, and exhibit distinct absorption spectra or ‘fingerprints’. These ‘fingerprints’ permits these substances to be analyzed, imaged, and selectively identified. These fingerprints provide a route to analyzing, detecting and imaging these substances, driving a range of THz spectroscopy, remote sensing, security, bio-medical, & non-destructive testing (NDT) applications.
Firefly-THz is a new, pulsed, terahertz (THz) laser source that provides a unique combination of shoebox size, narrow linewidth output (tunable over a wide & continuous range), room temperature operation, and high output power and brightness. Firefly-THz provides significant advances in the compactness and efficiency of optical THz sources, by virtue of a novel intracavity optical parametric oscillator design, and integrated diode-pumped pump laser. This innovative scheme results in highly efficient conversion of the nanosecond pump pulses to THz wavelengths, and removes the need for a costly high-energy pump laser. Output powers close to 10µW at 400Hz have already been demonstrated (10x higher power than equivalent THz sources), with continuous tuning from 1.2 to >3THz (<100 to 250µm). This wide tuning enables users to access the THz absorption features or ‘fingerprints’ of many different substances with a single Firefly-THz, while its high power allows the user to 'see' further in detection/ sensing applications. With wide hands-free tuning, a readily collimated output beam, microwatt average powers and Watt-level peak powers, Firefly-THz opens the door to a new generation of more practical, cost-effective THz sources. |
