Terahertz (THz) and Mid Infrared (MIR) radiation can be transmitted through nearly any material without causing biological harm. Novel and rapid methods of detection can be created with devices operation in these spectral ranges allowing scanning for weapons, detecting hidden explosives (including plastic landmines), controlling the quality of food and a host of other exciting applications. The aim of the workshop is to build the basis for a wide collaboration between researchers in the area of advanced photonic research for defense against terrorism.
Presentations and discussions provided during the workshop in the frontier of Terahertz (THZ) and Mid Infrareed (MIR) basic science and applications can potentially stimulate joint research and projects for designing new materials and devices. The workshop characteristic feature is a stronger emphasis on the mathematical and physical aspects of the research, together with a detail analysis of the application problems. The technical program consists of invited lectures and regular contributed papers.
The presentations and discussions will be allow an interesting forum for discussion, towards unifying these two spectral domains (THz and MIR) from their common aspects of sources, detectors, materials and applications and discuss key interdisciplinary topics. In this common sense THz and MIR are considered jointly, the driving force for both regimes being applications, however, strongly motivated by fundamental physical and technological challenges. The main THz and MIR source is the quantum cascade laser (qcl). A strong emphasis will be given to invited talks from leading scientists related devoted to turn this advanced technology into affordable commercial devices throughout the THz and MIR spectral ranges and exploit their enormous potential for security applications.
Topics of interest include but are not limited to:
Interaction of MIR or THz radiation with living biological material
Applications of MIR and THz to medical diagnosis MIR and THz imaging
Detection of explosives and dangerous substances
Last mile communication
Integration of THz and MIR with optical fibers
Our of the box methods for MIR and THz generation and detection
Lasers without inversion
Nonlinear MIR and THz optics
Difference frequency and other nonlinear methods of generation of THz radiation
Milimiter wave and microwave generation and detection – bridging the gap to THz.
Quantum Cascade Lasers
Quantum Cascade Detectors
Intersubband Transport and Optics