Development of real-time terahertz near-field microscope

Abstract

In the terahertz (THz) frequency range, there are vibrational modes related to the water dynamics (hydrogen bonding network) and spectral finger prints of biomolecules such as sugars and proteins. The application of the THz radiation for the imaging of biosamples requires high resolution and fast data acquisition. In this paper, the principles and the configuration of the real-time THz near-field microscope that we have developed is described and we show some examples of the THz microscopic images obtained by our THz microscope.