Interesting!
I've already played with light emitting thin panels (probably OLED) but I considered the
layer stacking was fundamental as it is in a semiconductor Light Emitting Diode. Hence my answer "not just by the material" as I suspect it needs more refinements.
Some modes are in the RF domain, sure, but...
- These
modes are intensely excited by room temperature (300K = 10µm = 30THz >> RF). Would an electrical excitation add any desire by the molecule to radiate? This is a difficulty at Quantum Cascade Lasers, though they use well-known materials and emit in the infrared.
- In a liquid, the
mean time between molecule collision is much shorter than a period of RF, meaning that these modes are so much broadened that they can't be seen on a spectrum. Even gas at moderate pressure shows a very indistinct spectrum: atmospheric humidity "resonating" at 2.45GHz (hence microwave ovens) has a very broad absorption. Can a device exploit such a degraded resonance?
In quantum devices (like LED) people generally consider that the working temperature must be much lower than the used frequency, which would mean <<0.3K for 30GHz and <<0.3mK for 30MHz. Are exceptions known in this area?
One device made to emit THz waves lets two Quantum Cascade Lasers produce IR and brings the slightly different frequencies to beat in a nonlinear crystal. This is the turnaround found to work at moderately cold temperature.
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People interested in devices
creating or receiving THz waves could have a look at my
inventions there:
http://www.physforum.com/index.php?showtopic=15617&st=0&#entry225095I apologize for the huge mess there: it also contains ring lasers and partially related topics, and no drawing. And I contradict some early statements later.
Sorry for that. A better redaction may come some day, or maybe not. Anyway, I believe the future of THz is in that thread.