Terahertz holographic wave-plates for creating predefined beam profiles

 2D Terahertz imaging cameras produced by TERASENSE have long been recognized as excellent tools for  beam profiling and measurement. However, recent advances in 3D printing technologies open up fundamentally new possibilities for making new terahertz optical elements and considerably expand the applicability of our terahertz optics.

TERASENSE is evolving and keeps absorbing new technologies than can complement our main line of business. We have recently conducted R&D in the field of  designing complex components for wave optics and are happy to present a new type of optical component — holographic THz wave-plates. These components allow creating a predefined beam profile required for a specific image plane. Holographic technology is fairly simple, flexible, and cost-effective. The use of 3D printing allows manufacturing fully customized THz optical components in a short time. Such technology opens up fundamentally new possibilities for shaping terahertz wave beams and is an important step forward in developing terahertz optics. High resolution of 3D-printing (0.1 mm) and transparency of our polymers are ideal for printing THz optics that shape electromagnetic radiation in the THz frequency range.

Here is how it works.  First, we make a wave-plate of any complex shape including variable thickness levels etc. using 3D printers, which are becoming widely popular nowadays. Such wave-plate can then be used to modulate electromagnetic radiation phase, when shooing a THz beam from THz wave sources through it, which in its turn  translates a predefined beam shape on a target plane. A typical setup using holographic optical components consists of two major components: (1) a fixed-frequency terahertz source, which generates Terahertz radiation and (2) a phase hologram plate, which shapes the beam.  It may appear simple at a first glance , but the trick is that such phase hologram (also known as THz holographic wave-plate) must be designed (calculated) and custom-tailored for a specific frequency and distance to the target plane, and that’s where TERASENSE comes in.  

TERASENSE is ready to offer a service of THz wave-plate designing (calculating) per customer's requirements by means of  transferring holographic wave-plate topology and then delivering the first prototype to a customer.