Safer and Better Than X-rays, Scientists Develop T-ray Machine

Most of us have suffered delays and aggravation at airport security checkpoints. Unfortunately, X-ray and metal detectors can only identify a few clearly dangerous materials, leading to elaborate procedures for checking computers, footwear, and anything metallic. Now "T-rays", a safe form of radiation, may revolutionize airport screening methods, and give hope of reshaping cancer and other medical screening techniques as well.

T-rays, or terahertz radiation, are a form of elecromagnetic radiation that is totally safe. X-rays have sufficient energy to ionize an atom by removing one of its electrons. Resulting ionization causes damage to cells leading to radiation sickness, and cancer. T-rays are less energetic and consequently non-ionizing, similar to visible light or radio waves. Therefore, people suffer no harm from terahertz radiation exposure.

Moreover, terahertz radiation penetrates many common materials, such as paper and cardboard fibers, clothing, and leather. Devices that display T-ray absorption patterns can detect and also identify a much more diverse group of hazardous and illegal substances, compared to X-ray scanners.

T-rays penetrate the human body to half a centimeter, and hold the promise of better cancer detection and treatment. In the future, dentists may use T-rays to more safely and accurately check patients' teeth.

According to a press release, researchers at the US Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory, led by Ulrich Welp of Argonne's Materials Science Division, have developed a compact device that should lead to battery operated, portable T-ray generators. With the help of colleagues from Japan and Turkey, Welp's team has bridged the "terahertz gap," the scientific name for frequencies of the electromagnetic spectrum between microwaves and infrared waves.