Integrated THz Plasmonic Chemical and Biological Sensors

Detection of chemical and biological threats is becoming increasingly important in today"s world of asymmetric enemies. The threat of attack using chemical and biological warfare (CBW) agents has increased significantly both abroad and at home due to the availability of information and large quantities of industrial chemicals. This growing threat requires new techniques and technologies for high sensitive detection and complex (multiplex) analysis of potential threat matrices. Today"s fielded methods are limited in the detection sensitivity as well as the limit of detection and are not amenable to high volume processing. New core technologies are needed that will enable fabrication of large area, highly reproducible, multiplexed CBW agent detection. In order to achieve this goal, Nanohmics proposes to develop a detection technology that consists of an array of sensors that enables complex THz signature profiling of Chemical/Biological Warfare (CBW) targets. The core of the platform consists of non-epitaxial, integrated detector structures that are fabricated using a scalable and reproducible technique.