THz phase-shifted waveguide Bragg gratings built on modular 3D-printed two-wire plasmonic waveguides are used experimentally for gas sensing. The physical parameters of a gas flowing along the grating are then monitored in real time by detecting the spectral position of a narrow transmission peak. The sensor sensitivity was found to be 133 GHz/RIU near 0.14 THz, with a theoretical sensor resolution of 7.5.10-5 RIU. The detection of glycerol vapors in air generated by an electronic cigarette was shown experimentally. The developed THz gas sensor can find its practical applications in environmental pollution monitoring and leak detection.
Significance: An increasing interest in the area of biological effects at exposure of tissues and cells to the terahertz (THz) radiation is driven by a rapid progress in THz biophotonics, observed during the past decades. Despite the attractiveness of THz technology for medical diagnosis and therapy, there is still quite limited knowledge about safe limits of THz exposure. Different modes of THz exposure of tissues and cells, including continuous-wave versus pulsed radiation, various powers, and number and duration of exposure cycles, ought to be systematically studied.
Aim: We provide an overview of recent research results in the area of biological effects at exposure of tissues and cells to THz waves.
Approach: We start with a brief overview of general features of the THz-wave–tissue interactions, as well as modern THz emitters, with an emphasis on those that are reliable for studying the biological effects of THz waves. Then, we consider three levels of biological system organization, at which the exposure effects are considered: (i) solutions of biological molecules; (ii) cultures of cells, individual cells, and cell structures; and (iii) entire organs or organisms; special attention is devoted to the cellular level. We distinguish thermal and nonthermal mechanisms of THz-wave–cell interactions and discuss a problem of adequate estimation of the THz biological effects’ specificity. The problem of experimental data reproducibility, caused by rareness of the THz experimental setups and an absence of unitary protocols, is also considered.
Results: The summarized data demonstrate the current stage of the research activity and knowledge about the THz exposure on living objects.
Conclusions: This review helps the biomedical optics community to summarize up-to-date knowledge in the area of cell exposure to THz radiation, and paves the ways for the development of THz safety standards and THz therapeutic applications.
In terahertz (THz) communications, most of the research work is focused on wireless systems, while waveguide/fiber-based links have been less explored. Although wireless communications have several advantages, the fiber-based communications provide superior performance in certain short-range communication applications with complex geometrical environments. In this work, we present an in-depth experimental and numerical study of the short-range THz communications links (carrier frequency:128 GHz) that use subwavelength dielectric fibers of varying diameters (0.57-1.75 mm) and up to 10 m for information transmission (up to 6 Gbps) and define main challenges and tradeoffs in the link implementation.
In this work, a low-loss near-zero dispersion polypropylene fiber is designed for signal transmission at the carrier frequency of 128 GHz. An infinite 3D printing technique is explored to continuously fabricate the proposed fiber without length-limit. The in-depth theoretical and experimental comparisons between the two fibers printed using standard and infinite 3D printers are introduced in detail. Particularly, transmission losses of 2.39 dB/m and 5.57 dB/m have been experimentally demonstrated for the two fibers at 128 GHz. Furthermore, for the two fibers with the corresponding lengths of 2 m and 1.6 m, signal transmission with bit error rates far below the forward error correction limit (10-3) was clearly observed. Error-free transmission is realized at the bit rates up to 5.2 Gbps for the standard 3D printed fiber at the length of 1.5 m.
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