We describe a film of highly-aligned single-walled carbon nanotubes that acts as an excellent terahertz linear polarizer. There is virtually no attenuation (strong absorption) when the terahertz polarization is perpendicular (parallel) to the nanotube axis. From the data we calculated the reduced linear dichrosim to be 3, corresponding to a nematic order parameter of 1, which demonstrates nearly perfect alignment as well as intrinsically anisotropic terahertz response of single-walled carbon nanotubes in the film.

We demonstrate a terahertz polarizer built with stacks of aligned single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) exhibiting ideal broadband terahertz properties: 99.9% degree of polarization and extinction ratios of 10(-3) (or 30 dB) from ~0.4 to 2.2 THz. Compared to structurally tuned and fragile wire-grid systems, the performance in these polarizers is driven by the inherent anistropic absorption of SWCNTs that enables a physically robust structure. Supported by a scalable dry contact-transfer approach, these SWCNT-based polarizers are ideal for emerging terahertz applications.

Electron spin resonance measurement of gamma-ray-irradiated propane hydrates shows that the normal propyl radical withdraws hydrogen from the adjacent propane molecule through the hexagonal planes of the hydrate cage without water molecule bridging.

The thermal stability of gamma-ray-induced methyl radicals in methane hydrate was studied using the ESR method at atmospheric pressure and 210-260 K. The methyl radical decay proceeded with the second-order reaction, and ethane molecules were generated from the dimerization process. The methyl radical decay proceeds by two different temperature-dependent processes, that is, the respective activation energies of these processes are 20.0 +/- 1.6 kJ/mol for the lower temperature region of 210-230 K and 54.8 +/- 5.7 kJ/mol for the higher temperature region of 235-260 K. The former agrees well with the enthalpy change of methane hydrate dissociation into ice and gaseous methane, while the latter agrees well with the enthalpy change into liquid water and gaseous methane. The present findings reveal that methane hydrates dissociate into liquid (supercooled) water and gaseous methane in the temperature range of 235-260 K.

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We measured the real and imaginary dielectric constants, ϵ′ and ϵ″, of H2O and D2O ice over the frequency range of 0.2–1.4 THz and temperature range of 20–240 K using terahertz-time domain spectroscopy and a gas-cooled cryostat. The constant ϵ′ increased with frequency; numerical calculations indicated a local maximum in ϵ′ at a few terahertz. The polarizability α obtained from ϵ′ exhibited a linear increase with respect to the temperature squared (T2). The constant ϵ″, which is mainly influenced by infrared phonon absorption, increased with the frequency and temperature over the entire range considered in this study. A mathematical model was created to describe the frequency and temperature dependence of ϵ″.

The two stilbazolium derivatives, 4-dimethylamino-N-methyl-4-stilbazolium tosylate (DAST) and 4-dimethylamino-N-methyl-4-stilbazolium p-chlorobenzenesulfonate (DASC), are organic ionic nonlinear optical materials that have a tendency to form bulk crystals when grown in a mixed solvent of methanol and acetonitrile. We observed the generation of broadband high-power terahertz (THz) waves from the bulk crystals of DASC. DASC crystals have superior transmission characteristics in the THz band than DAST crystals, and it is expected that the THz waves generated using DASC crystals will have higher power than those generated using DAST crystals.