Tunable graphene device demonstrated: First tool in kit for putting terahertz light to work
Sunday, September 4, 2011 - 12:30
in Physics & Chemistry
Long-wavelength terahertz light is invisible it's at the farthest end of the far infrared but it's useful for everything from detecting explosives at the airport to designing drugs to diagnosing skin cancer. Now, for the first time, scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California at Berkeley have demonstrated a microscale device made of graphene the remarkable form of carbon that's only one atom thick whose strong response to light at terahertz frequencies can be tuned with exquisite precision.