Terahertz waves for communications and sensing

The development of technology in the THz frequency band has seen rapid progress recently. Considered as an extension of the microwave and millimeter wave bands, the THz frequency offers greater communications bandwidth than is available at microwave frequencies. The development of sources and detectors for this frequency range has been driven by other applications such as spectroscopy, imaging, and impulse ranging. Only recently modulators and filters have been added to enable the development of communications applications. APL's contributions to date in THz research have been primarily in the areas of spectroscopy and imaging. This article gives an overview of THz technology for communications and sensing applications, with some discussion of the sources, detectors, and modulators needed for a practical THz communications system.

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