Development and future prospects of terahertz technology

Recently, the technology of terahertz (THz) waves, which have been called undeveloped electromagnetic waves, has been making remarkable progress. In addition to the technologies of generating THz waves using lasers, which are promoting this progress, advances are being made in THz generation methods using electronic devices and accelerators, and various THz optical components have been actively developed. The applications of THz technology are also becoming increasingly widespread. In this report, I will review these developments and discuss the future prospects of this field. (C) 2015 The Japan Society of Applied Physics