WILL sticky tape ever cease to amaze? Peeling it can generate terahertz radiation, raising the possibility of a cheaper alternative to lasers for medical imaging.
Peeling sticky tape has already been shown to produce X-rays, so and of the University of Wollongong in New South Wales, Australia, tried to see if it could create lower-frequency terahertz radiation. 鈥淲e were rather pleasantly surprised to obtain a clear signal in our first attempt,鈥� says Horvat.
Strongly adhesive Scotch Magic 810 tape and weakly adhesive electrical tape both yielded strong terahertz signals, ranging from 0.1 to 10 terahertz, but only about a microwatt of power, too little for practical use (). Horvat says that refinements should increase the power by orders of magnitude.
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