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SPIE BiOS: Terahertz and Ultrashort Electromagnetic Pulses for Biomedical Applications

Part of the SPIE International Symposium on SPIE BiOS

2-7 February 2013 • The Moscone Center • San Francisco, California United States

The terahertz (THz) region of the electromagnetic (EM) spectrum is defined as frequencies ranging from 0.1 to 10 THz (1 THz = 10^12 Hz = 1 ps). Historically, few sources have been available to efficiently generate THz radiation; however, several recent technological advances have resulted in the unprecedented development of many new types of THz sources and components. These technologies are now being used as tools for a plethora of novel basic science investigations, and they are increasingly being integrated into innovative sensing and imaging operational schemes, which are finding widespread use in a host of medical, military, and defense applications.

Ultrashort electromagnetic pulses (USEP) are defined as pulses with duration below one microsecond and a rise time at or below a nanosecond. Direct application of USEP on tissue has been shown to elicit an array of biological effects including plasma membrane breakdown, cellular swelling, nuclear granulation, and initiation of apoptotic death. These observed phenomena have spawned quick advancement of USEP-based techniques into clinical devices to treat both superficial and deep cancers. USEP-based technologies have a distinct advantage of causing desired effects only within the profile of the electric field with little to no thermal footprint. Future technology is pushing beyond direct application into shorter pulse regimes (picoseconds) to enable free field propagation of USEP into deep tissue. These efforts have required advancements in pulse generators and antenna construction. The drive to shorter pulse duration bridges the gap between electrical pulses and those commonly generated by THz sources.

Fundamental knowledge gaps exist regarding how electric fields with frequency components from the MHz to the THz interact with biological structures. This conference aims to highlight USEP and THz source development, biological applications, and fundamental interactions with tissues, cells, and biomolecules. Scientific papers that push the state-of-the-art are solicited. These include:

Basic Science and Phenomenology: interaction mechanisms, biological effects, and molecular dynamics
• THz time-domain spectroscopy (THz-TDS): transmission, reflection, KITA, and attenuated total reflection (ATR)
• Biological effects of THz radiation and USEP at organism, tissue, cellular, and biomolecular level
• Molecular dynamics in meso-space: water relaxation components, hydration and biosolvation dynamics

Biomedical Diagnostics and Therapeutics: Imaging, Spectroscopy, and Multi-modality approaches
• Cancer diagnosis and margin detection: skin, breast, liver, and oral tissues
• Skin burns, sweat gland monitoring, corneal hydration sensing, retinal imaging, and wound repair
• Therapeutic bio-stimulation: exploitation of THz and USEP for non-contact control of biological
functions

Advanced systems, sources, and bio-analytic tools
• Nanoscale FTIR, near-field microscopes, subwavelength THz microscopy, 3D THz tomography, THz OCT
• Microfluidics, micromachined probes, microcantilever systems, and THz integrated circuits
• Bio-environmental, agricultural, food testing, pharmaceutical applications
• Lasers: Far-IR molecular gas, p-type germanium, THz-Quantum cascade lasers (QCLs)
• Frequency down-conversion and non-linear optical sources: optical rectification, difference frequency generation, parametric amplification, and laser-induced plasma sources
• Frequency up-conversion: electronic solid-state devices, schottky diodes, varactors/varistors, multiplier sources
• Accelerating electron based-sources: photocurrent in semiconductor (photoconductive switches, photomixing, UTC); free electrons in vacuum (backward wave oscillators, traveling wave tubes TWTs, gyrotrons, and free electron lasers (FELs)
• Nanosecond and picoseconds high electric field pulse generators and electric field measurement
systems

Novel materials and transmission technologies
• Transmission technologies: free space optics, waveguides, and fiber optics Materials: active and passive metamaterials, photonics crystals, plasmonics, graphene, and THz phononpolaritons
• Lenses: superfocusing, microlenses, liquid crystals, dielectric-based lenses
• Nanoparticles and nanotubes: carbon nanotube structures

Conference Chairs: Gerald J. Wilmink, Bennett L. Ibey, Air Force Research Lab. (United States)

Program Committee: Hope T. Beier, Air Force Research Lab. (United States); Benjamin P. Born, Weizmann Institute of Science (Israel), Patrick O. Bradshaw, Air Force Office of Scientific Research (United States); Elliott R. Brown, Wright State Univ. (United States); Ibtissam Echchgadda, National Academy of Sciences (USA); Yuri Feldman, The Hebrew Univ. of Jerusalem (Israel); Martina Havenith, Ruhr-Univ. Bochum (Germany); Peter U. Jepsen, Technical Univ. of Denmark (Denmark); Kodo Kawase, RIKEN (Japan); Martin Koch, Technische Univ. Braunschweig (Germany); Richard Nuccitelli, BioElectroMed Corp. (United States); Gun-Sik Park, Seoul National Univ. (Korea, Republic of); Emma Pickwell-MacPherson, Hong Kong Univ. of Science and Technology (Hong Kong, China); W. P. Roach, Air Force Research Lab. (United States); Peter H. Siegel, Jet Propulsion Lab. (United States); Joo-Hiuk Son, The Univ. of Seoul (Korea, Republic of); Koichiro Tanaka, Kyoto Univ. (Japan); Robert J. Thomas, Air Force Research Lab. (United States); P. T. Vernier, The Univ. of Southern California (United States); Shu Xiao, Old Dominion Univ. (United States)

For more information, see the Conference Website.