A team from the University of Maryland has published a paper on building a prototype detector that uses graphene to view an unprecedented range of light waves.

Xinghan Cai, a physics graduate student and team leader, said the detector could be used for various investigations such as detecting invisible terahertz waves.

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Cai said a detector similar to the team's prototype could be used to "find applications in emerging terahertz fields" such as night vision, security, chemical sensing, medical imaging and mobile communications.

The light that shines on everything is only a part of a small range of frequencies and wavelengths. The low frequencies and long wavelengths of terahertz light waves, which rests in between infrared and microwaves, render terahertz light waves invisible to the human eye.

The light in the terahertz wavelength is capable of passing through substances and materials commonly considered opaque such a cardboard, plastics, clothing and skin. It could be used to detect signatures chemicals emit at the terahertz range.

As of the moment, however, there are only a few applications of terahertz detection in technology since it's been hard to notice light in this range before. Most detectors require extremely cold conditions, approximately -269.15 degrees Celsius, and current devices that work at the normal ambient temperature are slow, bulky and prohibitively costly.

The Maryland team and colleagues from Australia's Monash University and the United States Naval Research Lab have developed a detector capable of working at room temperature by using graphene, a single layer of interconnected carbon atoms.

The detector, with the use of graphene's special properties, has been capable of maintaining the sensitivity and increasing the speed of terahertz range detection at ambient temperature.

TagsGraphene, Carbon, Science, scientific research, Light, University of Maryland