Terahertz Breakthrough at Room Temperature
Researchers at Dresden’s HZDR facility have achieved a significant milestone in terahertz technology by generating terahertz signals at room temperature using an ultra-thin material, according to reports. The team used powerful laser pulses to produce terahertz waves from a mercury telluride film measuring just 70 nanometers thick, marking what sources indicate is the first non-cryogenically-cooled demonstration of its kind.
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Closing the “THz Gap”
Terahertz waves occupy the challenging electromagnetic spectrum between microwaves and infrared light, promising ultrafast wireless communication but proving difficult to generate and manipulate efficiently. The recent research sheds light on mercury telluride (HgTe) as a promising material that converts incoming laser frequencies into terahertz outputs with record room-temperature efficiency, the report states.
Tatiana Svetikova, a PhD candidate at the quantum technologies department at Helmholtz Center Dresden-Rossendorf, explained that the team aimed to prove mercury telluride worked “intrinsically, not just in simulation or under special lab conditions.” This fundamental science advancement moves researchers closer to practical terahertz technology, analysts suggest.
Experimental Achievement
In their experiment, researchers directed two laser beams onto the thin mercury telluride film, which successfully converted the incoming beams into terahertz waves. Independent experts not involved in the study have highlighted the significance of this experimental achievement.
“It’s easy to do mathematical simulations to work with terahertz, but it’s extremely difficult to get experimental results,” said Arjun Singh, director of the Wireless and Intelligent Next Generation Systems research center at SUNY Polytechnic Institute. “This study actually got to true terahertz, and there are very few experimental studies that actually get there.”
Practical Applications and Limitations
The development represents a step toward on-chip THz sources that could miniaturize current bulky tabletop systems into components suitable for consumer or data-center use, according to the analysis. Singh suggested that short-range THz links could eventually serve high-capacity “wireless-wire” connections between servers or devices.
“Imagine eliminating hundreds of cables in a data hall,” Singh said. “It’s not just faster — it saves weight, space, and power.”
However, analysts caution that terahertz technology will not form the backbone of future 6G networks. “Most early 6G deployments will still rely on low- and mid-band frequencies already in use,” Singh noted. Instead, THz waves are more likely to appear in very dense environments like stadiums, city hubs, or AI data centers where extreme data rates and low latency justify the added complexity.
Efficiency Improvements and Material Challenges
Georgy Astakhov, head of the quantum technologies department at Helmholtz-Zentrum, revealed that while the device’s current efficiency is only two percent, this is partly due to the material’s thinness. “We expect that if we have a thicker material, or maybe a multilayered film… we can get it close to 100 percent. That’s our hope,” Astakhov stated.
Both Svetikova and Astakhov acknowledged the challenge of material availability. Mercury telluride is reportedly quite expensive to produce and is primarily used in military detectors, limiting its availability for non-military applications. The researchers indicated they are exploring ways to optimize parameters and find cheaper materials that could be produced at wafer scale while maintaining efficiency.
As Astakhov explained, “We can optimize the parameters and find cheaper materials, or less expensive ones, that can be done thicker or on the wafer scale — and then we can hope to increase the efficiency.”
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References
- https://sunypoly.edu/
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury_telluride
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terahertz_radiation
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frequency
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dresden
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