[LUM#17] The Terahertz Revolution
Seeing through matter… science fiction? Yet it’s a reality made possible by terahertz waves. This technology opens the door to numerous applications developed by the company Terakalis, which, for example, allows us to verify that airplane wings are intact. That’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 through transistors to generate or detect electromagnetic waves at terahertz frequencies, ” explains the specialist. These terahertz waves lie in the electromagnetic spectrum between microwaves and infrared. While humanity has long been “completely blind to this frequency range, ” Terahertz wave tamer have shed light on their extraordinary properties…
See through
“These are non-ionizing waves, which means they are harmless to health and have a high penetrating power that allows them to pass through various types of materials—including fabric, plastic, and composite materials—and provide much greater contrast than X-rays. ” These are the properties that Frédéric Teppe and his colleagues Wojciech Knap, Nina Dyakonova, and Pierre Solignac decided to capitalize on when they founded the startup T-Waves Technologies in 2013—now known as Terakalis—which has won no fewer than four innovation awards. The company has garnered even more attention because “it’s quite rare to see applications emerge from a fundamental physics laboratory, ” notes Frédéric Teppe.
And to make it a success, we had to convince manufacturers of the full potential of terahertz waves. While some were hesitant at first, they quickly realized that this ability to probe deep into materials could prove very useful. “During one of our first presentations, one of our colleagues took off her pendant and placed it in an envelope. We then demonstrated that our device literally allowed us to see the pendant through the envelope, ” recalls Frédéric Teppe.
Non-destructive testing
The company, which now has 20 employees, is leveraging this technology to enter the field of non-destructive testing and evaluation of materials for the scientific and industrial sectors. “Until now, to verify that a part was free of defects, it had to be destroyed to examine the inside; thanks to terahertz waves, we can now very precisely assess the quality of materials while leaving them intact. ” The technology thus holds a prominent place in the aerospace and automotive sectors, which are major consumers of plastics and composites—materials that terahertz waves easily penetrate. “For example, we can inspect an airplane’s wings or a helicopter’s fuselage for potential defects, ” explains the physicist. Ensuring transportation safety is one of the many superpowers of terahertz waves.
From wheat to luxury
Terahertz waves are poised to become a part of our daily lives, and their applications are multiplying. A revolution is on the horizon in the field of agronomy, where they will make it possible to assess plants’ water stress levels in order to better tailor irrigation. In the parcel delivery chain, where they can be used to detect potentially hazardous contents. In medical imaging, where they could, for example, detect the subcutaneous spread of melanoma through the skin. In telecommunications, where they could achieve unprecedented data rates. But also in the luxury sector: “We can, for example, look through a tube of lipstick to check for bubbles in the formula and ensure product quality,” explains Frédéric Teppe. Is the sky the limit?
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*L2C (CNRS, UM)