Terahertz “Teramometry” for Diverse Applications

Two out of five Canadians are expected to develop cancer and one out of four Canadians is expected to die from cancer. For treatment of Melanoma, a dangerous skin cancer, plasmonic photo-thermal therapy is applied for precisely localized plasmonic heating of gold nanoparticles to kill cancer. One of the major challenges in heating applications involves precise temperature measurements. Current approaches are inconvenient, inaccurate, or costly. Thus, there exists a need to develop non-contact and non-invasive temperature sensing technologies e.g. Terahertz (THz) waves for temperature sensing and imaging of the cancer area. Thus, the plasmonic heating can be tailored to exceed the critical temperature for cellular death of the cancer. The project builds on innovations in plasmonics, THz, and nanomaterials design to develop a system encompassing state-of-the-art heating/imaging/temperature sensing techniques. QPS Photronics will use the THz thermometry and imaging technology to commercialize new devices for a variety of measurement applications.

Faculty Supervisor:

Roberto Morandotti

Student:

Holger Breitenborn

Partner:

QPS Photronics Inc.

Discipline:

Physics / Astronomy

Sector:

Energy

University:

Université INRS