Scientists from the University of Ottawa and the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light are proposing a breakthrough approach that will facilitate discoveries in materials science by combining terahertz (THz) spectroscopy and real-time monitoring.

Terahertz waves are that can reveal hidden secrets of matter. They can capture fast changes in materials invisible to other types of radiation. Scientists can now use to record real-time movies of hot electrons in silicon at 50,000 frames per second—faster than ever before.

Led by Jean-Michel Ménard, associate professor of physics at the University of Ottawa's Faculty of Science, a team of scientists used two techniques, chirped-pulse encoding and photonic time-stretch.

The study, "Single-pulse terahertz spectroscopy monitoring sub-millisecond time dynamics at a rate of 50 kHz," was published in Nature Communications.

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