High Frequency: "The Last Frontier in the Electromagnetics Spectrum"
Dr. Jason Deibel - Rice University, Houston, TX
The terahertz (THz) region of the electromagnetic spectrum (100 GHz to 10 THz) remained relatively unexplored until developments in ultrafast laser technology provided techniques for the generation and detection of THz radiation.
Recently, simple metal wires were found to be effective terahertz waveguides that exhibited very low loss and dispersion. The THz radiation propagates along the surface of the wire´s cylindrical geometry.
This propagation is very similar to the wave phenomena described by Sommerfeld and has also been described as an azimuthally polarized surface plasmon. Both theories do not agree with experimental studies of the attenuation versus frequency. This story investigates.