[LUM#17] The Terahertz Wave Revolution
Seeing through matter... science fiction? Yet it is a reality made possible by terahertz waves. This technology has opened up numerous applications developed by the company Terakalis, enabling, for example, the wings of airplanes to be checked for damage. It's certainly reassuring.
Frédéric Teppe has a superpower. He can literally see through matter. A superhero? "More like a sociologist of electrons," as the physicist describes himself. Together with his colleagues at the Charles Coulomb Laboratory*, he has been studying the behavior of these elementary particles for years. "Plasma oscillations, or electron waves, can propagate in transistors to generate or detect electromagnetic waves at terahertz frequencies, " explains the specialist. These terahertz waves are located in the electromagnetic spectrum between microwaves and infrared. While humanity has long been "completely blind in this frequency range, " those who have mastered terahertz waves have shed light on their extraordinary properties...
See through
"These are non-ionizing waves, which are therefore harmless to health and have a high penetrating power that allows them to pass through different types of materials, including fabric, plastic, and composite materials, and provide much higher contrast than X-rays. Frédéric Teppe and his colleagues Wojciech Knap, Nina Dyakonova, and Pierre Solignac decided to capitalize on these properties by founding the start-up T-Waves Technologies in 2013, now known as Terakalis, which has won no fewer than four innovation awards. The company has attracted particular attention because "it's quite rare to see applications coming out of a fundamental physics laboratory, " notes Frédéric Teppe.
And to convert the try, we had to convince manufacturers of the full potential of terahertz waves. Although some were initially cautious, they quickly realized that this ability to probe the intimacy of materials could prove very useful. "During one of our first presentations, one of our colleagues took off her pendant and put it in an envelope. We then showed that our device could literally see the pendant through the envelope, " recalls Frédéric Teppe.
Non-destructive testing
The company, which now has 20 employees, is currently leveraging this technology to enter the field of non-destructive material assessment and testing for scientific and industrial sectors. "Until now, to check that a part was free of defects, it had to be destroyed in order to examine the inside. Thanks to terahertz waves, we can now assess the quality of materials in great detail while leaving them intact. " The technology is therefore ideal for the aerospace and automotive industries, which are major consumers of plastics and composites, which terahertz waves can easily penetrate. "For example, we can inspect the wings of an airplane or the fuselage of a helicopter to look for possible defects, " explains the physicist. Ensuring transport safety is one of the many superpowers of terahertz waves.
From wheat to luxury
Terahertz waves are about to invade our daily lives, with a multitude of potential applications. A revolution is on the horizon in the field of agronomy, where they will make it possible to determine the water stress of plants in order to better adapt irrigation. In the parcel distribution chain, they could be used to detect potentially dangerous contents. In medical imaging, they could be used, for example, to detect the subcutaneous ramifications of melanoma through the skin. In telecommunications, they could achieve unprecedented speeds. But also in the luxury sector: "We can, for example, look through a tube of lipstick to see if there are any bubbles in the paste and guarantee the quality of the product," explains Frédéric Teppe. Is the sky the limit?
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*L2C (CNRS, UM)