Patent ID: 8193503
Filing Date: 2012-06-05
Classification: G01N

Abstract:
1. A method of detecting organic material using terahertz spectroscopy, the method comprising: suspending organic material in a medium to form a sample; generating a composite laser beam in an integrated laser module; applying the composite laser beam to a first photoconductive switch activated by the composite laser beam to form an illumination beam as an optically-generated illumination beam; irradiating the sample with the illumination beam of electromagnetic radiation, the illumination beam having a plurality of frequencies in the range of about 100 GHz to about 2 THz; detecting radiation transmitted through and/or reflected from the sample; and, analyzing the detected radiation to identify the organic material, wherein the medium is selected from the group consisting of agar, guar gum, gellan gum, carrageenan, xantham gum, fibrous sodium pectate, acrylamide, and other agar substitutes.