New terahertz lenses ‘could aid biomedical research’

Light-powered 3D printing technology has been utilised to create a terahertz lens with a range of potential applications.

Led by Northwestern University, the project utilised metamaterials and 3D printing to develop a novel lens that works with terahertz frequencies, providing better imaging capabilities than common lenses.

Terahertz frequencies exist in the gap between microwaves and infrared, with researchers believing this spectrum carries a large amount of potentially useful information.

The new lens was manufactured with a 3D printing technique called projection micro-stereolithography, offering a scalable, rapid and inexpensive way to produce the tiny features needed for the lens to operate at the terahertz frequency band.

Wei Cao, a collaborator on the project at Oklahoma State University, said: "This advance means we can unveil previously inaccessible information of some opaque materials in high resolution. This opens up an entirely new technique for a massive range of potential uses from biomedical research to security."

Terahertz radiation is completely harmless to humans and, unlike X-rays, can be used to detect plastic and chemicals.