The Terahertz region of the electromagnetic spectrum, which spans from 300 GHz to 10 THz, has attracted a lot of attention in recent years due to potential applications in the commercial, scientific, and government arenas. The following list is just a sample of the areas where terahertz imaging and sensing can yield new technical capability and new business opportunities:

• Food and Medicine: Mammography, Dentistry (detection of tooth decay), Medical diagnostics (early detection of skin cancer, bone density), Endoscopy, Food industry process control (moisture detection), Pharmaceutical process control (pill inspection)

• Government: Home land Security – concealed weapon identification, detection of suicide bombers, biological threat detection, NASA – detection of voids in the space shuttle foam, Air Force – high rate and secure data transfer, flame analysis (rocket or jet engine burn optimization), Army – seeing through sand storms, TSA – passenger screening, hidden weapons detection, contraband detection

• Scientific: Earth remote sensing, Astrophysics (THz astronomy), Chemistry, Environmental sensing (pollution detection), Plasma diagnostics, Biochemistry (DNA analysis)

The workshop’s technical level is intended for a general scientific audience. The speakers are selected from academia, industry and government, and who will be covering topics in terahertz generation, detection, and its applications.