Terahertz radiation, whose wavelengths lie between those of microwaves and visible light, can penetrate many nonmetallic materials and detect signatures of certain molecules. These handy qualities could lend themselves to a wide array of applications, including airport security scanning, industrial quality control, astrophysical observations, nondestructive characterization of materials, and wireless communications with higher bandwidth than current cellphone bands. However, designing devices to detect and make images from terahertz waves has been challenging, and most existing terahertz devices are expensive, slow, bulky, and require vacuum systems and extremely low temperatures. Now,…
