Terahertz Frontiers: Quantum and Emergent Materials, Nanoscale Phenomena, Devices and Applications

Submission Deadline: January 31, 2026Contribute to this Special Topic
Over the past few decades, terahertz (THz) spectroscopy has become a powerful tool for unlocking unique physical phenomena in a broad spectrum of materials, from bulk semiconductors and inorganic nanomaterials to organic and biomaterials. These developments have deepened our understanding of fundamental material properties at THz frequencies, spurring rapid innovations in THz devices and their applications.

More recently, breakthroughs in nanoscale THz techniques, such as THz near-field microscopy (eg. THz s-SNOM, LTEM) and lightwave-driven scanning tunneling microscopy (eg. THz-STM, NOTE, THz-STL), have achieved spatial resolutions at the nanometer and even picometer scale. These advances open exciting new possibilities for probing local electronic, vibrational, and quantum phenomena in complex materials.

Topics covered include, but are not limited to:

  • THz studies of quantum and emergent materials, including materials with massless Dirac or Weyl fermions, low-dimensional superconductors, strongly correlated systems, magnetic materials, and topological insulators.
  • THz imaging and spectroscopy techniques with high spatial, temporal, or energy resolution for probing materials.
  • Materials and devices leveraging novel THz functionalities, such as phase-change, magneto-electric, or strongly nonlinear responses.
  • Hybrid approaches integrating THz technologies with other modalities such as ultrafast optics, electron microscopy, or quantum sensing.
  • THz quantum cascade lasers (QCLs): innovations in design, integration, and their use in high-resolution spectroscopy, imaging, sensing, and on-chip photonics.

Guest Editors

Masayoshi Tonouchi – Okayama University, Japan

Vedran Jelic – National Research Council Canada

Withawat Withayachumnankul – University of Adelaide, Australia

Lyubov Titova – Worcester Polytechnic Institute, USA

Submission Deadline: January 31, 2026Contribute to this Special Topic