This PDF file contains the front matter associated with SPIE Proceedings Volume 11064, including the Title Page, Copyright information, and Table of Contents.

Terahertz radiation has been used for detection, sensing and imaging of biological objects and for medical imaging and diagnostics. The THz absorption or reflection from biological tissues yields their detailed spectroscopic signatures. Cancer cells have a significantly higher water content than the healthy cells, and a higher sensitivity of the THz absorption and reflection to the water content enables the application of the THz absorption and/or reflection for cancer diagnostics. Recently developed highly sensitive plasmonic TeraFET detectors and TeraFET arrays implemented using mainstream Si CMOS technology detect could detect minute quantities of biological samples and could scan large areas of biological tissues with a high sensitivity and nanometer scale resolution. Future developments of this technology will allow for a much more accurate cancer detection based on the scans yielding information about both magnitude and phase of the THz signal.

This paper reviews emerging ideas for further development of graphene plasmonic THz technology and comment on the prospects of graphene commercialization. Unique and extraordinary supreme properties of graphene are combined to enable graphene plasmonic devices that could revolutionize the terahertz (THz) electronic/photonic technology. The graphene bipolar nature allows for different mechanisms of plasma wave excitation. Graphene bilayer and multilayer structures make possible improved THz device configurations. The ability of graphene to form a high-quality van der Waals heterostructure with various 2D material systems supports advanced devices comprised of the best properties of graphene and other emerging materials. Emerging graphene mass production technologies might bring commercial applications of the graphene plasmonic terahertz technology closer

Data on the effects of high-intensity pulsed THz radiation (peak intensity ~30 GW/cm2 , electric field strength ~3.5 MV/cm) on human skin fibroblasts have been obtained for the first time. A quantitative assessment of the number of histone H2AX phosphorylation foci in a cell as a function of irradiation time and THz pulse energy was obtained. It has been shown that the appearance of foci is not associated with either oxidative (cells retain their morphology, cytoskeleton structure, and the content of reactive oxygen species does not exceed the control values) or thermal stress. Long-term irradiation of cells did not reduce their proliferative index.

In modern medicine, wound healing remains a very complex process where the main goal is to achieve a fast regeneration matched to an aesthetically satisfactory appearance. In particular, reducing the wound healing time and minimizing tissue scarring are important requirements. In view of minimally-invasive clinical interventions, nanoparticle-assisted laser tissue soldering is emerging as an appealing concept in surgical medicine due to its ability to facilitate wound healing while avoiding sutures. However, such a therapy has not been employed in clinical settings yet. The underlying reason is the fact that rapid elevation in temperature can cause significant photothermal tissue damage. Therefore, cutting-edge diagnostic tools are indispensable in order to monitor the temperature in tissue and achieve satisfactory healing results. To this end, we propose a non-invasive, non-contact, and non-ionizing modality for monitoring nanoparticle-assisted laser-tissue interaction and visualizing the localized photothermal damage, by taking advantage of the unique sensitivity of terahertz radiation to the hydration level of biological tissue. We demonstrate that terahertz imaging can be employed as a versatile tool to monitor the temperature variations and reveal the thermally affected evolution in tissue. In particular, terahertz imaging is able to provide quantitative information along the depth direction, in turn allowing us to characterize the photothermal damage induced by nanoparticle-assisted laser tissue soldering in three dimensions. Our approach can be easily extended and applied across a broad range of clinical applications associated with laser-tissue interactions, such as laser ablation and photothermal therapies.

Currently, aerosol is considered as the major route for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) transmission. A safe sterilization method with an excellent penetration capability and ability to sterilize free spaces is urgently needed. Previously it has been experimentally demonstrated that microwave-based sterilization can effectively inactivate the H3N2 Influenza A virus through the structure-resonant energy transfer (SRET) effect with a radiation field intensity following the IEEE standard. In order to utilize the same mechanism to inactivate the SARS-CoV-2 virus, firstly, the structural resonant frequencies with electromagnetic (EM) waves have to be identified. In this paper we report our design and implementation of a spectrum measurement chip utilizing the coplanar waveguide with pre-printed mask. With the mask, the repeatability of the insertion loss measurement can be well-controlled. Our microwave absorption spectra results revealed that the coplanar-waveguide chip can identify the resonant microwave frequencies of difference viruses, including the SARS-CoV-2 viruses, highlighting the potential applications for not only the virus detection but also the safe and non-thermal sterilization of public spaces. During the presentation, we will also report the resonant EM wave frequencies of various corona viruses monitored by the aforementioned chip.