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Science

Researchers Combine Lasers and Terahertz Waves In Camera That Sees 'Unseen' Detail (phys.org) 28

A team of physicists at the University of Sussex has successfully developed the first nonlinear camera capable of capturing high-resolution images of the interior of solid objects using terahertz (THz) radiation. Phys.Org reports: Led by Professor Marco Peccianti of the Emergent Photonics (EPic) Lab, Luana Olivieri, Dr. Juan S. Totero Gongora and a team of research students built a new type of THz camera capable of detecting THz electromagnetic waves with unprecedented accuracy. Images produced using THz radiation are called 'hyperspectral' because the image consists of pixels, each one containing the electromagnetic signature of the object in that point.

The EPic Lab team used a single-pixel camera to image sample objects with patterns of THz light. The prototype they built can detect how the object alters different patterns of THz light. By combining this information with the shape of each original pattern, the camera reveals the image of an object as well as its chemical composition. Sources of THz radiation are very faint and hyperspectral imaging had, until now, limited fidelity. To overcome this, The Sussex team shone a standard laser onto a unique non-linear material capable of converting visible light to THz. The prototype camera creates THz electromagnetic waves very close to the sample, similar to how a microscope works. As THz waves can travel right through an object without affecting it, the resulting images reveal the shape and composition of objects in three dimensions.

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Researchers Combine Lasers and Terahertz Waves In Camera That Sees 'Unseen' Detail

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  • Time to scan that pyramid to see what is ACTUALLY down the weird tiny tunnel.

    • I was thinking maybe use it on the Antikythera Mechanism.
    • by MrKaos ( 858439 )

      Time to scan that pyramid to see what is ACTUALLY down the weird tiny tunnel.

      Indeed. However enough wonder is revealed in examining the original dimensions, not the corrected ones. There is so much information packed in there, often twice, it is impossible for any rational person to believe that many "coincidences" could occur.

      Just off the top of my head you will find, amount of seconds in a day, polar and equatorial circumference of the Earth, pi, phi, definition of decimal numbers as long as you keep in mind it is a 3D object meant to be considered in 3 dimensions.

      For examp

    • It's just a maze of twisting passages, all different.
  • by ShoulderOfOrion ( 646118 ) on Wednesday February 19, 2020 @02:11AM (#59741998)

    Will make you 10X more punchable than Google Glasses ever did. Every boy will want a pair.

    • You’re gonna need a really good filter, because I’m pretty sure even a casual glance my way with a pair will deliver a punch directly to your brain.
      • need a really good filter

        How about The Great Filter? Though, with Trump as President, you might need The Greatest Filter.

  • Like I said in the other recent terahertz article, this is all about cameras.

    A one pixel microscope camera. Much less creepy than what they'll build later.

  • call me skeptical, but 'THz waves can travel right through an object without affecting it' doesn't that also mean the object cant affect the waves ? How can an image be produced then ?

  • THz? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by methano ( 519830 ) on Wednesday February 19, 2020 @08:17AM (#59742392)
    What the crap is this terahertz all about? I'm an old chemist and I've been working on fluorescent molecules for the last few years. No one ever talks about light in frequency. They talk about wavelength. When you get down to the FM band, where the NMR's hang out, then you might do this frequency thing. So I'm going to have to haul out Planck's constant and do the conversion myself and see if this is just about far IR or something like that. Maybe Google will do it for me. Goes away for a few seconds and is back. Microwaves! they're talking about microwaves. The same ones you use to heat up old coffee and that everyone has sitting in their kitchen. Why didn't they say microwaves? I know why. Because THz sounds so damn exotic. Actually, on playing with the calculator, it looks almost like IR. Well damn, visible light is 430–770 THz. Shit, I've got one of those damn Terahertz cameras sitting in my old iPhone 6. Am I cutting edge or what?
    • Re:THz? (Score:4, Interesting)

      by jfdavis668 ( 1414919 ) on Wednesday February 19, 2020 @08:26AM (#59742424)
      They provide a link to Wikipedia to explain it. It is a band of light, at the far end of infrared before microwaves, where we haven't had instruments that could generate it or observe it. Yes, you could measure any wavelength in terahertz by just doing a conversion. There is actually no difference in the light in the infrared range, the discussed wavelengths, and microwaves. We categorize them by the ways they are commonly generated and how we use them. In the past we haven't been able to use the subject wavelengths, so they didn't have a good name. People gave them this name to identify them. Sorry they didn't tell you about it before.
    • I have no idea what your talking about. But if you need a car analogy, my truck gets 400 leagues/hogshead on the freeway which is awesome.
    • Engineers - especially ones used to building and using RF systems talk in frequency. (eg wifi is 2.4 and 5Ghz. Whats the wavelength? Who gives a fuck). SUre back in the day AM radio was measured in wavelengths but its not the mid 20th any more. And since these engineers are now moving up band they'll also use frequency there.

      • If you care about diffraction, refraction, reflection, penetration, or resolution, wavelength is a lot more useful than frequency. Of course, if you don't care, then you don't.
        • If you're calculating refraction, diffraction, etc, frequency is equally useful as wavelength, 'cause you can do the rather simple math to convert it.

          That said, frequency is more useful than wavelength when you're talking about extremely high frequency devices to differentiate between them in conversation, because while there's a big difference in wavelength between, say, 80m and 40m HF, but a relatively small difference in frequency (3.5MHz vs 7Mhz,) the opposite is true once you start getting above a few

    • What the crap is this terahertz all about? I'm an old chemist and I've been working on fluorescent molecules for the last few years. No one ever talks about light in frequency. They talk about wavelength. When you get down to the FM band, where the NMR's hang out, then you might do this frequency thing. So I'm going to have to haul out Planck's constant and do the conversion myself and see if this is just about far IR or something like that. Maybe Google will do it for me. Goes away for a few seconds and is back. Microwaves! they're talking about microwaves. The same ones you use to heat up old coffee and that everyone has sitting in their kitchen. Why didn't they say microwaves? I know why. Because THz sounds so damn exotic. Actually, on playing with the calculator, it looks almost like IR. Well damn, visible light is 430–770 THz. Shit, I've got one of those damn Terahertz cameras sitting in my old iPhone 6. Am I cutting edge or what?

      THz is probably more marketable, like MHz, GHz and now THz! Imagine how fast that light is compared to your CPU!

      You just can't do that with plain old nano meters...

  • Now I can easily see which Lego is in those minifig bags...

    • Surprised the anti loot box hysteria never got applied to minifig bags.

      The whole 'risk free living' case works as hazardously there also.

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