£6.5million project to ‘unlock’ the terahertz spectrum

The COTS – Coherent Terahertz Systems – Project is funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). According to the researchers, there is 30 times more bandwidth available in the THz region than in the entire allocated radio spectrum. Within 10 years, researchers anticipate widespread THz applications, including ultra broadband wireless technology for indoor 'super Wi-Fi' to THz sensing and imaging systems in the production control, security and medical sectors. Principal investigator Professor Alwyn Seeds, head of the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering at UCL, said: "This programme will enable us to address the THz spectrum with the same precision and sensitivity as is today possible at radio frequencies, leading to this underused part of the electromagnetic spectrum finally achieving its full scientific and commercial potential." Current THz technologies are said to be complex, bulky and power hungry. The COTS programme will bring together teams that have pioneered THz quantum cascade lasers, microwave photonics and THz quantum state control with the objective of opening up the THz spectrum for widespread scientific and commercial application through the use of photonics enabled coherent techniques.