Making the invisible visible is a function of terahertz radiation, making the almost impossible possible is what Kugler does best.

Sufficiently strong sources and sensitive detectors that can operate outside the laboratory have only recently been available in the terahertz range. The terahertz range is the range of the electromagnetic spectrum between infrared and microwave. Applications are not only limited to science. The low energy of the radiation permits minimum impact examinations that would hardly be conceivable with conventional techniques such as x-ray. This also allows organic materials to be examined without destruction.
The resulting applications are numerous. Many possibilities arise for medical diagnostics such as, for example, the diagnosis of tumours. Perfectly new fields can be developed with terahertz applications. Above all, here we must mention the security sector. Terahertz radiation can be used to detect weapons and explosives – unnoticed, without contact and safely. The intensities which can be thereby detected are generally so low that large effective detector surfaces are necessary. Here specially designed composite optical components are frequently used. For the optimization of the image characteristics high-aperture, non-rotationsymmetrical aspheres are often used.

Transmission optics for the terahertz range can be made from water-free synthetics such as Zeonex and Topas or reflective optics made from, for example, aluminium. Kugler offers standard ultraprecision machining up to a diameter of 700 mm, in special cases with reduced accuracy, up to a diameter of 900 mm. Dimensional stability and surface roughness are material specific.
On Zeonex a roughness of Ra <13nm can be achieved, the roughness of 6061 aluminium is limited by its silicon content to Ra <7nm. For all material within the maximum diameter the attainable dimensional stability is within the range <1µm. The remaining shape deviations generally only have a low-frequency component. If necessary, all reflection optics can be provided with metallic coatings of gold, silver or aluminium to increase their reflectivity.

Link to the APPLICATION VIDEO.

By Dr. rer. nat. Bernd Heitkamp
Technical Director Optics / Systems
info@kugler-precision.com