Science and technologies based on terahertz frequency electromagnetic radiation (100 GHz–30 THz) have developed rapidly over the last 30 years. For most of the 20th Century, terahertz radiation, then referred to as sub-millimeter wave or far-infrared radiation, was mainly utilized by astronomers and some spectroscopists. Following the development of laser based terahertz time-domain spectroscopy in the 1980s and 1990s the field of THz science and technology expanded rapidly, to the extent that it now touches many areas from fundamental science to 'real world' applications. For example THz radiation is being used to optimize materials for new solar cells, and may also be a key technology for the next generation of airport security scanners. While the field was emerging it was possible to keep track of all new developments, however now the field has grown so much that it is increasingly difficult to follow the diverse range of new discoveries and applications that are appearing. At this point in time, when the field of THz science and technology is moving from an emerging to a more established and interdisciplinary field, it is apt to present a roadmap to help identify the breadth and future directions of the field. The aim of this roadmap is to present a snapshot of the present state of THz science and technology in 2017, and provide an opinion on the challenges and opportunities that the future holds. To be able to achieve this aim, we have invited a group of international experts to write 18 sections that cover most of the key areas of THz science and technology. We hope that The 2017 Roadmap on THz science and technology will prove to be a useful resource by providing a wide ranging introduction to the capabilities of THz radiation for those outside or just entering the field as well as providing perspective and breadth for those who are well established. We also feel that this review should serve as a useful guide for government and funding agencies.

The 2016 terahertz science and technology roadmap

A sickle-shaped metamaterial (SSM) based biochemical sensor with multiple resonances was investigated in the terahertz frequency range. The electromagnetic responses of SSM were found to be four resonances, namely dipolar, quadrupolar, octupolar and hexadecapolar plasmon resonances. They were generated from the interactions between SSM and perpendicularly incident terahertz waves. The sensing performances of SSM-based biochemical sensors were evaluated by changing ambient environments and analyte varieties. The highest values of sensitivity and figure of merit (FOM) for SSM covered with analyte thin-films were 471 GHz/RIU (refraction index unit) and 94 RIU−1, respectively. In order to further investigate the biosensing ability of the proposed SSM device, dielectric hemispheres and microfluidic chips were adopted to imitate dry and hydrous biological specimens, respectively. The results show that the sensing abilities of SSM-based biochemical sensors could be enhanced by increasing either the number of hemispheres or the channel width of the microfluidic chip. The highest sensitivity was 405 GHz/RIU for SSM integrated with microfluidic chips. Finally, three more realistic models were simulated to imitate real sensing situations, and the corresponding highest sensitivity was 502 GHz/RIU. The proposed SSM device paves the way to possible uses in biochemical sensing applications.

https://www.mdpi.com/2079-4991/10/6/1038/pdf

Terahertz Metamaterial with Multiple Resonances for Biosensing Application.

A technique is implemented for altering the multimodal resonance generated in an ultrathin silicon ring resonator-based terahertz (THz) absorber. The absorber provides the dual-band resonance with the excitation of magnetic and electric dipole in the lower and upper band, respectively. The field of magnetic and electric dipoles is altered using a non-resonant graphene ring placed in the center of the generated dipolar arrangement and the tunability and perfect absorption is achieved. A circuit model is prepared using transmission line method and absorber operation is verified. The proposed absorber can be utilized as a biosensor for the detection of malaria virus and glucose percentage in water. The sensor offers highest sensitivity as 0.29 and 0.27 THz per thickness unit change and quality factor as 117.53 and 245 in the lower and upper band, respectively during the sensing of analyte thickness. Also, it offers the sensitivity as 0.20 and 0.10 THz per refractive index unit change and quality factor as 105.28 and 211.84 in the lower and upper band, respectively during refractive index sensing. Moreover, the structure remains insensitive to polarization angle of the incident electromagnetic wave.

Altering the Multimodal Resonance in Ultrathin Silicon Ring for Tunable THz Biosensing

In this paper, a terahertz (THz) biosensor based on all-metal metamaterial is theoretically investigated and experimentally verified. This THz metamaterial biosensor uses stainless steel materials that are manufactured via laser-drilling technology. The simulation results show that the maximum refractive index sensitivity and the figure of merit of this metamaterial sensor are 294.95 GHz/RIU and 4.03, respectively. Then, bovine serum albumin was chosen as the detection substance to assess this biosensor’s effectiveness. The experiment results show that the detection sensitivity is 72.81 GHz/(ng/mm2) and the limit of detection is 0.035 mg/mL. This THz metamaterial biosensor is simple, cost-effective, easy to fabricate, and has great potential in various biosensing applications.

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All-metal terahertz metamaterial biosensor for protein detection.

Surface plasmons generated at the graphene dielectric interface can be altered by trapping the electric charge. A technique is implemented for trapping the bipolar electric charge on the graphene surface and arranged in a desired way to enhance the performance of a monolayer graphene metamaterial based tunable, ultrathin, dual narrow band terahertz (THz) absorber. A monolayer graphene sheet placed on the dielectric substrate can provide dual-band resonance by utilizing the surface plasmons of the fundamental and third order mode index and an absorption of more than 99% and 50% can be obtained in the lower and upper band, respectively. The absorption is further enhanced to the level of perfect-absorption by utilizing the charge trapping mechanism on the graphene and generating bipolar charged nodes to create higher order surface plasmons. The multiple interference and reflection theory proves that the destructive interference in the dielectric layer is the cause of perfect absorption. The applied technique in the dual-band absorber configuration provides a tunable response which remains insensitive to the polarization and incident angle of the electromagnetic wave. The proposed perfect absorber can be utilized as a biosensor for refractive index sensing and the detection of glucose in water and the malaria virus in blood. It can provide an ultrahigh sensitivity of 14.88 THz RIU−1 with FOM as 53.09 RIU−1 with the variation in the chemical potential of graphene and 12.7 THz RIU−1 and FOM as 41.1 RIU−1 during glucose detection in water.

/pdf/bipolar-charge-trapping-for-absorption-enhancement-in-a-3nf5ed17nc.pdf

Bipolar charge trapping for absorption enhancement in a graphene-based ultrathin dual-band terahertz biosensor

We theoretically and experimentally demonstrate a label-free terahertz biosensor with ultrahigh sensitivity and distinctive discretion. By constructing a metal-air-metal (MAM) metamaterial perfect absorber (MPA) with a metallic paired-ring resonator array, a hollow microfluidic channel, and a backed reflector, a novel dual-band absorptive sensing platform is proposed in the THz range. The near field coupling by dipole-induced trapped modes and the magnetic momentum caused a vertical to transverse power flux that dramatically enhanced the electromagnetic field on top of the metasurface and in the microfluidic channel, respectively. Both the resonant modes exhibit perfect absorption and produce ultrahigh normalized sensitivities of 0.47/RIU (refractive index unit, RIU) and 0.51/RIU at 0.76 THz and 1.28 THz, respectively. Compared with conventional microfluidic sensors, the salient advantages of our design are the perfect spatial overlap for light-matter interaction and polarization insensitivity. Characterized by THz time domain spectroscopic absorption quantification measurements with different concentrations of bovine serum albumin (BSA), the proposed sensor exhibits promising applications in microfluidic biosensing.

Zhengqiang Bao

Papers

Dual-band refractometric terahertz biosensing with intense wave-matter-overlap microfluidic channel