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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
Terahertz lasers could soon have their moment. Emitting radiation that sits somewhere between microwaves and infrared light along the electromagnetic spectrum, terahertz lasers have been the focus of intense study due to their ability to penetrate common packaging materials such as plastics, fabrics, and cardboard and be used for identification and detection of various chemicals and biomolecular species, and even for imaging of some types of biological tissue without causing damage. Fulfilling terahertz lasers' potential for us hinges on improving their intensity and brightness, achieved by enhancing power output and beam quality.
Sushil Kumar, associate professor in Lehigh University's Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and his research team are working at the forefront of terahertz semiconductor 'quantum-cascade' laser (QCL) technology. In 2018, Kumar, who is also affiliated with Lehigh's Center for Photonics and Nanoelectronics (CPN) reported on a simple yet effective technique to enhance the power output of single-mode lasers based on a new type of "distributed-feedback" mechanism.
[...] Now, Kumar, Jin and John L. Reno of Sandia are reporting another terahertz technology breakthrough: they have developed a new phase-locking technique for plasmonic lasers and, through its use, achieved a record-high power output for terahertz lasers. Their laser produced the highest radiative efficiency for any single-wavelength semiconductor quantum cascade laser. These results are explained in a paper, "Phase-locked terahertz plasmonic laser array with 2 W output power in a single spectral mode" published yesterday in Optica.
"To the best of our knowledge, the radiative efficiency of our terahertz lasers is the highest demonstrated for any single-wavelength QCL to-date and is the first report of a radiative efficiency of greater than 50% achieved in such QCLs," said Kumar. "Such a high radiative efficiency beat our expectations, and it is also one of the reasons why the output power from our laser is significantly greater than what has been achieved previously."
More information: Yuan Jin et al, Phase-locked terahertz plasmonic laser array with 2 W output power in a single spectral mode, Optica (2020). DOI: 10.1364/OPTICA.390852
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 12 2020, @04:05PM
Depends if it is worse, better, or same amount of damage as existing imaging solutions.
A single PET scan subjects the patient's bladder to 60mSv. This is not including the radiation from the CT scan that accompanies a PET (full body CT = 12mSv, but the CT with a PET can be lower resolution, if so, then lower exposure).
Normal folks are supposed to limit exposure to less than 1mSv/year (a chest xray is 0.1mSv), and radiation workers are allowed a maximum of 50mSv/year.
Personal experience with 4 PET scans per year for 5 years with quite a few additional CT only scans sprinkled in between (usually one with contrast, one without, for a total of 24mSV each time), and several scans in the years following.
I would have loved to have had a less harmful alternative. Especially, since it looks like I might live long enough for additional cancers from the radiation exposure to be a concern :)