Caltech wizards develop terahertz-radiating chips, eye homeland security and ‘touchless gaming’ applications

Caltech wizards develop terahertzradiating chips, eye homeland security and 'touchless gaming' applications

A duo of electrical engineers (or mad scientists, if you prefer) at the California Institute of Technology have developed chips that could very well end up in the next James Bond movie. Or, you know, real life. The newfangled chips are capable of generating and radiating “high-frequency electromagnetic waves, called terahertz (THz) waves, that fall into a largely untapped region of the electromagnetic spectrum.” They can penetrate a host of materials without the ionizing damage of X-rays, and apparently, can be integrated into small, handheld devices. The university is already dreaming of potential applications — everything from homeland security to wireless communications to health care, and even touchless gaming. In theory, this kind of work would eventually lead to noninvasive cancer diagnosis as well. The technobabble can be seen in full at the source link.

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Source: Caltech

Harvard makes distortion-free lens from gold and silicon, aims for the perfect image (or signal)

Harvard makes distortionfree lenses from gold and silicon, aims for the perfect image or signal

Imaging has been defined by glass lenses for centuries, and even fiber optics haven’t entirely escaped the material’s clutch. Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences might have just found a way to buck those old (and not-so-old) traditions. A new 60-nanometer thick silicon lens, layered with legions of gold nanoantennas, can catch and refocus light without the distortion or other artifacts that come with having to use the thick, curved pieces of glass we’re used to — it’s so accurate that it nearly challenges the laws of diffraction. The lens isn’t trapped to bending one slice of the light spectrum, either. It can range from near-infrared to terahertz ranges, suiting it both to photography and to shuttling data. We don’t know what obstacles might be in the way to production, which leads us to think that we won’t be finding a gold-and-silicon lens attached to a camera or inside a network connection anytime soon. If the technology holds up under scrutiny, though, it could ultimtately spare us from the big, complicated optics we often need to get just the right shot.

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Harvard makes distortion-free lens from gold and silicon, aims for the perfect image (or signal) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 25 Aug 2012 00:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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