Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Science 8 May 1998:
Vol. 280. no. 5365, p. 854
DOI: 10.1126/science.280.5365.854
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Research Commentaries

RADIATION SOURCES:
Scanning with Ease Through the Far Infrared

Richard Temkin

Good radiation sources in the far infrared (300 to 900 micrometers) are difficult to find, but very important for spectroscopic studies of matter. In his research commentary, Temkin discusses a device recently reported by Urata et al. in Physical Review Letters in which the electron beam components of a standard electron microscope were used to create far infrared radiation. When the electron beam is passed over a metal grating with the right periodicity, the electrons induce positive "image" charge that oscillates like an antenna and emits far infrared radiation.

The author is in the Department of Physics and the Plasma Science and Fusion Center, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA. E-mail: temkin{at}psfc.mit.edu

Read the Full Text

To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)