Terahertz techniques encompass a set of experimental and analytical methods that generate, manipulate, and detect electromagnetic radiation in the terahertz (THz) frequency range, typically 0.1–10 THz, for probing material properties and dynamical processes. Core approaches include time-domain spectroscopy using ultrafast lasers and nonlinear crystals or photoconductive antennas, frequency-domain spectroscopy with continuous-wave THz sources, and imaging modalities exploiting THz transmission, reflection, or near-field interactions. These techniques enable characterization of low-energy excitations, carrier dynamics, vibrational and rotational modes, and dielectric responses in solids, liquids, gases, and biological tissues, often with depth resolution and spectroscopic contrast.
In new research published in Nature Materials, a team of researchers led by Columbia University chemist Xiaoyang Zhu, in collaboration with fellow Columbians Xavier Roy, Milan Delor, Dmitri Basov, and James McIver, has observed ...
Condensed Matter
May 11, 2026
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A two-dimensional lamellar crystal composed of atomically thin layers of lead iodide (PbI2) could be used to manufacture a new generation of circuits that use light and mechanical vibrations (rather than electrons) to transmit ...
Condensed Matter
May 5, 2026
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Today, I want to walk you through a deceptively simple innovation from the lab at Loughborough University (PI: Prof Marco Peccianti): what happens when we decorate a spintronic heterostructure with a sparse layer of plasmonic ...
A tiny crystal chip which uses terahertz radiation to see clearly through a wide range of materials could find applications in health care, biological research, and security screening. Researchers from Scotland and Japan ...
Optics & Photonics
Mar 23, 2026
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Scientists at the University of Warwick and University of Exeter have developed a fully fiber-coupled terahertz (THz) imaging system that significantly improves the speed, resolution, and clinical practicality of terahertz ...
Optics & Photonics
Mar 20, 2026
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Skoltech researchers and their colleagues from KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden, have created an important building block for future 6G communication technology, which will make wireless data transfer at superior ...
Nanophysics
Mar 17, 2026
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The future for our computers will literally be at the speed of light. Extremely short light pulses can perform ultrafast logical operations: these are the findings of a study recently published in the journal Nature Photonics. ...
Optics & Photonics
Mar 10, 2026
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An Osaka Metropolitan University-led research team investigated the decay time of coherent longitudinal optical (LO) phonons both in a GaAs1−xNx epilayer and in a GaAs single crystal to clarify the effects of dilute nitridation.
General Physics
Feb 19, 2026
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Using ideas borrowed from topological photonics, researchers in Singapore, France and the US have designed a compact antenna capable of handling information-rich terahertz (THz) signals. Reporting their results in Nature ...
You can tell a lot about a material based on the type of light shining at it: Optical light illuminates a material's surface, while X-rays reveal its internal structures and infrared captures a material's radiating heat. ...
Optics & Photonics
Feb 4, 2026
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