Fighting against terrorism has become a global issue, with so much advancement in weapons earth is no safe place to live. The scientist of Sandia National Laboratories are working hard on developing a next generation of screening devices that will identify hazardous and toxic materials even if concealed by clothing and packaging materials.
The development is based on terahertz (THz) portion of the electromagnetic spectrum that lies between microwaves and infrared, and is aimed at developing a highly integrated miniaturized terahertz transmitter-receiver. The problem in developing such a powerfull device earlier was that the power generated for these device could only be generated from very bulky equipments like molecular gas lasers or free electron lasers.
The revolutionary development of terahertz quantum cascade lasers that use semiconductor sources has made the project feasible as these sources are capable of output powers in excess of 100 mW powered by a 9 volt battery and so reducing the size of the device equivalent to a baseball.
The development of this innovative technology is going under a three year project known as Terahertz Microelectronics Transceiver Grand Challenge and is in second yer of funding. Sandia University partners with MIT and some other only US institutions with ability to grow the unique semiconductor crystals such that they can be turned into operating terahertz quantum cascade lasers.
The task during the first year of projest was to develop components that could be combined to create an integrated THz microelectronic transceiver. Currently the team is developing the receiver, doing systems tests and exploring packaging requirements and expects to develop a working prototype of the device.
The device will be capable of monitoring and detecting hazardous and toxic materials even if concealed by clothing and packaging materials by sensing unique terahertz spectral signature of chemicals and then comparing them to terahertz spectral signature databases. Therefore, the device will find great applications in advanced communication systems, high-resolution radars and in detecting weapons and explosives.
Development of such a device will provide us with a foolproof solution to tackle terrorists.
Via: physorg
