TERA-MIR radiation: materials, generation, detection and applications

This special edition is dedicated to original papers covering topics with the areas of interest of COST ACTION MP1204 whose main objective is to advance novel materials, concepts and device designs for generating and detecting THz (0.3–10 THz) and Mid Infrared (10–100 THz) radiation using semiconductor, superconductor, metamaterials and lasers and to beneficially exploit their common aspects within a synergetic approach. The results achieved benefit from the unique networking and capacity-building capabilities provided by the COST framework to unify these two spectral domains from their common aspects of sources, detectors, materials and applications. We are building a platform to investigate interdisciplinary topics in Physics, Electrical Engineering and Technology, Applied Chemistry, Materials Sciences and Biology and Radio Astronomy. In this sense THz and MIR are considered jointly, the driving force for both regimes being applications. The main emphasis of the research presented here is on new fundamental material properties, concepts and device designs that are likely to open the way to new products or to the exploitation of new technologies in the fields of sensing, healthcare, biology, and industrial applications. End users are: research centres, academic, well-established and start-up companies and hospitals. The strong coupling of THz radiation and material excitations has potential to improve the quantum efficiency of THz devices.