About us

Normal universal matters are made of four states: solid, liquid, gas, and plasma. The generation of THz wave from solids, gases, and plasmas has been demonstrated, used, and understood for decades. However, the THz wave generation from liquid sources was conspicuously absent, especially from liquid water due to water’s infamously strong absorption characteristics in the THz regime. It is reasonable to expect that liquids might have unique properties if they could be harnessed as THz sources. Liquids have a high molecular density, close to that of solids, meaning that light over a certain area will interact with many more molecules than an equivalent cross-section of gases. This makes liquids very good candidates for the study of high-energy-density plasma. Once thought impossible, we have experimentally demonstrated that liquid water can generate intense and broadband THz waves with the use of femtosecond laser pulses. A successful investigation in THz generation from liquids will complete the last piece of the matter-phase puzzle for THz sources. New physics will be developed to fully characterize this process in liquids, especially in water and related materials, to support new THz wave science, technology and applications. I will report recent development of terahertz aqueous photonics, especially the generation of coherent THz wave from liquid water films and lines.

Short biography

Dr. Xi-Cheng Zhang – Parker Givens Chair at The Institute of Optics, University of Rochester. He is a Fellow of AAAS, APS, IEEE, OSA, and SPIE. His recent awards include 2018 Alexander von Humboldt Prize; 2017 Australian Academy of Science Selby Fellow; 2014 International Society of IRMMW-THz Button Prize; 2012 OSA William F. Meggers Award; and 2011 IEEE Photonics Society William Streifer Scientific Achievement Award. He has received 29 US patents, authored or co-authored over 300 refereed scientific papers with his h-index of 88.

FTMC Conference 2020, Vilnius, Lithuania, September 28-29, 2020