“TERAHERTZ WAVES AND ITS APPLICATION”

THESE DAYS, it is not possible to do justice to an entire field or give sufficient credit to all its deserving technical innovators in one short paper, even in a relatively narrow area of development like terahertz technology. If this were the case, we would not have such a plethora of journals to submit to, nor conferences to attend. One thing is certain, the IEEE  Microwave Theory and Techniques Society (IEEE MTT-S), through its journals and sponsored conferences, has played a major role in defining, distributing information on, and advancing the field of terahertz technology since the society’s inception a half-century ago. During the course of this paper, we look back to the infancy of modern terahertz technology, beginning where Wiltse so ably left off in1984.Terahertz Technology refers to the research and development of devices operating at terahertz (THz) frequencies, generally defined as 100GHz - 10THz. This essentially unexplored region of the electromagnetic spectrum has received much interest in recent years from both the scientific and corporate world because of the unique properties of THz waves. These unique properties are proving to be very beneficial for many scientific fields and very profitable for companies developing the technology for commercial use. The ’THz gap’ has been studied extensively since the 1980’s and many applications have been proposed particularly in recent years due to the rapid development of semiconductor materials, laser technology and photonics. This report will cover the current state of THz technology based on available literature. Additionally, analysis of the behaviour of the radiation and the technical aspects of the devices will be used to examine limitations on proposed applications and areas of potential research.

THz is very promising technology for many applications. This technology is now moving forward to commercialisation. Backward wave oscillator (BWO) is most successful tube for generating Tera Hertz. The only disadvantages of BWOs include the need for a large external magnetic field required for a highly stable high-voltage power supply. Pyrometer is the most successful detector used for detection of the objects. The cost of the THz imaging system is very high. Because of this reason, most developing countries cannot afford this. This motivates the researchers to carry out work in this field to bring down the cost of the equipment. In conclusion, present THz system has long distance to go before it can be commercially used all over the world.