Domain Committee Materials, Physics and Nanosciences (MPNS)

COST Domain Committee "Materials, Physics and Nanosciences (MPNS)"

COST Action MP1204 Start Date 21/09/2012

TERA-MIR Radiation: Materials, Generation, Detection and Applications (TERA-MIR)

MONITORING PROGRESS REPORT

Reporting Period: from 29/09/2102 to 31/07/2013

This Report is presented to the relevant Domain Committee. It contains three parts:

I. Management Report prepared by the COST Office/Grant Holder II. Scientific Report prepared by the Chair of the Management Committee of the Action III. Previous versions of the Scientific Report; i.e., part II of past reporting periods

The report is a “cumulative” report, i.e. it is updated annually and covers the entire period of the Action.

Confidentiality: the documents will be made available to the public via the COST Action web page except for chapter II.D. Self evaluation.

Based on the monitoring results, the COST Office will decide on the following year’s budget allocation.

Executive summary (max.250 words): COST ACTION MP1204 at present comprises 32 signatory countries and 9 non COST countries intend to join, which altogether incorporates 100 researchers from various fields. In the period from 29/09/2102 to 31/07/2013 six events were organized: Kick-off meeting, a Training School; two MC meetings; one WG meeting overlapping with a MC meeting and the first International Conference of the ACTION which led to the approval, during this period, of twelve STSMs; two of which already took place. Collaborative research in TERA-MIR Radiation: Materials, Generation, Detection and Applications is being actively pursued. Our ACTION is characterized by a strong interaction with the Industry: two of the accepted STSMs are from industrial researchers to academic institutions and our "Industrial Wish List" already gave rise to the approval of the first Round Robin ACTION for the next few months. Our ACTION is successfully1 exploiting all the tools and mechanisms made available by COST. I. Management Report prepared by the COST Office/Grant Holder

I.A. COST Action Fact Sheet

 COST Action MP1204 - TERA-MIR Radiation: Materials, Generation, Detection and Applications  Domain Materials, Physics and NanoSciences (MPNS)

 Action details: CSO Approval: 07/06/2012 End date: 20/09/2016 Entry into force: 04/07/2012

 Objectives The main objective of this action is to advance novel materials, concepts and device designs for generating and detecting THz (0.3 THz to 10 THz) and Mid Infrared (10 THz to 100 THz) radiation using semiconductor, superconductor, metamaterials and lasers and to beneficially exploit their common aspects within a synergetic approach. We shall use the unique networking and capacity-building capabilities provided by the COST framework to unify these two spectral domains from their common aspects of sources, detectors, materials and applications. The key instruments of the action will be meetings of the working groups, Round Robin actions, Short Term Scientific missions (STSMs) and annual Workshops. We will create a platform to investigate interdisciplinary topics in Physics, Electrical Engineering and Technology, Applied Chemistry, Materials Sciences and Biology and Radio Astronomy. In this common sense THz and MIR are considered jointly, the driving force for both regimes being applications. The main emphasis will be on new fundamental material properties, concepts and device designs that are likely to open the way to new products or to the exploitation of new technologies in the fields of sensing, healthcare, biology, and industrial applications. End users are: research centres, academic, well-established and start-up Companies and hospitals.  Parties: list of countries and date of acceptance

Country Date Country Date Country Date Country Date Austria 16/04/2013 Belgium 12/09/2012 Bulgaria 20/07/2012 Croatia 22/07/2013 Czech 05/09/2012 Denmark 04/04/2013 Estonia 27/03/2013 Finland 15/08/2012 Republic France 25/07/2012 Germany 04/07/2012 Greece 09/11/2012 Hungary 07/08/2012 Iceland 13/09/2012 Ireland 01/08/2012 Israel 18/06/2012 Italy 06/09/2012

Lithuania 03/10/2012 Luxembourg 18/07/2012 Malta 21/06/2012 Netherlands 29/08/2012

Norway 16/08/2012 Poland 06/07/2012 Portugal 14/08/2012 Romania 27/06/2012 Serbia 19/02/2013 Slovakia 05/08/2012 Slovenia 12/03/2013 Spain 14/09/2012 United Sweden 12/09/2012 Switzerland 16/07/2012 Turkey 27/07/2012 12/06/2012 Kingdom

 Intentions to accept: list of countries and date

 Other participants: IPM RAS, Russia, Nizhny Novgorod Chair: Prof. Mauro F. Pereira, Sheffield DC Rapporteur: Dr Dag Hovik, The Hallam University, S1 1WB, Sheffield, Research Council of Norway, Science UK, +44 114 225 5312 and Technology Division, P.O.Box [email protected] 2700, St. Hanshaugen 0131, Oslo, Norway [email protected]

2 Science Officer: Dr Maria Moragues Administrative Officer: Mr Kent Hung, Canovas, [email protected] [email protected]

 Action Web site: http://www.tera-mir.org Grant Holder Representative Prof. Mauro F. Pereira, [email protected]

 Working Groups (list of WGs and names and affiliations of participants)

3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 I.B. Management Committee member list

16 17 I.C. Overview activities and expenditure

Action MP1204 - budget 2013

2013 Budget

Total Action 194,000.00 Budget Remaining Action 105,659.11 Committment

Meetings Meeting Type Date Place Paid part Cost Status Total Kick-off 21-Sep-12 1050 Brussels (BE) 21 13723.59 Partly paid 13723.59

Meeting Type Date Place Paid part Cost Status Total MC and WG Meeting 27/02-02/03-13 Warsaw (PL) Partly 31584.86 paid MC Meeting 08-Jul-13 Paris (FR) TBR 19370.6

STSMs Beneficiary Date From To Cost Status Total Ms Gabriela Salamu 01/06/2013 31/07/2013 2500 in 2,500 18 progress

Dr Mariusz Klimczak 02/06/2013 14/06/2013 1550 concluded 1550 Mr Jaroslaw Cimek 28/04/2013 11/05/2013 1500 concluded 1500 Mr Krzesimir Szkudlarek 24/06/2013 15/07/2013 2390 concluded 2390

Pr Adonis Bogris 01/07/2013 05/07/2013 1500 concluded 1500

Workshops Title Date Place Cost Status Total

SMMO 2013 27/02-02/03-13 See MC & WG 0

General Support Grants Title Date Cost Status Total 0

Schools Type Date Place title Cost Status Total ESR Training School 20–24 May 13 Cortona - Italy School of Photonics Partly 27945.43 paid

Honoraria Title Date Expert Cost Status Total 0

Grant Grant Holder Date Cost Status Total Sheffield Hallam 01-Jan-13 101,530 Scanned University 101,530

Dissemination Title Date Cost Status Total Web Page 0

Action 207,723.59* Total

* Note that the "Action Total" means the actual ACTION budget of 194 K EUR plus the amount spent in the kick off meeting, which is directly funded by the COST OFFICE.

19 II. Scientific Report prepared by the Chair of the Management Committee of the Action, describing results achieved during the Action operation in this period, in no more than 3 pages (the report is “cumulative”). All items listed in Sections A, B, and C, below, must be addressed.

Additional documentation such as extended scientific reports, proceedings of workshops, seminars or conferences may be provided separately as an annex to this report, and should be referenced in the report.

II.A. Innovative networking

 Innovative knowledge resulting from COST networking through the Action. (Specific examples of Results vs. Objectives)

The numerals (i to vi) in the Objectives correspond to "The expected deliverables of measurable scientific objectives in Section C.2 of the MoU". The references in brackets refer to list of papers published, accepted for publication and submitted, e.g. PA1 for "Paper Accepted 1".

WG1: Intersubband materials and devices with applications to fingerprint spectroscopy

Objective (ii) - Grow, understand, compare, optimize, develop and deliver materials for devices based on Quantum Cascade Lasers. Results - 1 - Technological Educational Institute of Athens (TEI), University of Athens and Technical University of Darmstadt (TUD) enhanced their collaboration taking advantage of COST MP1204 in order to study the noise properties of mid-infrared quantum cascade lasers. The results of this collaboration are very promising showing the potential of noise reduction in QCL devices with the use of optical injection techniques. This collaboration among the three groups was made possible by a STSM in which Prof. Adonis Bogris (TEI) visited TUD labs in order to perform experiments on the characterization of the noise of QCL sources.

Objective (iii) - Apply the different devices and methods within the Action members for detection of as many of the molecules found in breath with well-defined biochemical pathways and create a database that can be further exploited by SMEs and the biomedical industry. Results - 1 - The industrial partner NTT (IT) coordinated by Dr. Francesco Palma and the Team of Prof. Vladimir Vaks at the Institute for Physics of Microstructures of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Nizhny Novgorod (RU) have developed a measurement procedure and performed test measurements of gas analyzer based on the microwave spectrometer (115-178 GHz). The analyzer is planned to be used in many applications like security systems, medicine, etc. That is why the test measurements have been done with gases and vapors, important for many problems: O2, N2O, OCS, methanol, ethanol and diethyl ether. The results have demonstrated that the analyzer’s selectivity and sensitivity are enough for reliable detection of gases with very low concentrations in multi-component gas mixtures. Results - 2 - Dr Mariusz Klimczak from Institute of Electronic Materials Technology, Warsaw (PL) spent one week STSM at Tyndall Institute (IE). He tested large mode area, Mid-infrared transmitting, photonic crystal fibres made of soft glass for possible usage in capnography, which is the monitoring of the concentration or partial pressure of carbon dioxide (CO) in the respiratory gases. Its main application so far has been as a monitoring tool for use during anaesthesia and intensive care.

20 Objective (vi) - Theory and advanced modelling of active and passive devices using the experimental data. Results - 1 - The theory teams at Sheffield Hallam University - SHU - (UK) and Lund University - ULUND - (SE) have collaborated in the past, but not in recent years and developed independent approaches for the simulation of QCLs and intersubband materials. Driven by this MP1204 the two teams are now collaborating again. The SHU approach has frequency and momentum depending electron-electron scattering while the ULUND approach does not but has in contrast other relevant features not found in the SHU approach. So as a first step, a systematic set of approximations have been developed at SHU to allow electron-electron scattering to be included in the ULUND major simulator code. A subroutine has been preliminarily tested, It is successful and some cases, but shows convergence difficulty in other cases. A STSM has been approved to deal with the issue. The new set of simulation codes developed and tested by this effort will be used to support the design and experimental development of QCLs across the ACTION.

WG2: Metamaterials, photonic crystals and new functionalities

Objective (ii) - Grow, understand, compare, optimize, develop and deliver materials for devices based on: Frequency multiplication using semiconductor superlattices and amplifiers; THz Difference-frequency Generation in QCLs (generating THz from efficient MIR QCLs); Semiconductor materials for pulsed THz sources; Superconducting THz electronics with Josephson vortices; Quantum Cascade Lasers. Nitrides and bismides for THz and MIR; Telluride and lead-bismuth-galate glasses for MIR optical fibres and micro-optical components.

Results - 1 - Mid-infrared emission from optically clad Pr3+ doped GeAsGaSe – A cooperation between the George Green Institute for Electromagnetics Research, University of Nottingham (UK) and the Institute of Telecommunication, Teleinformatics and Acoustics, Wroclaw University of Technology (PL) has investigated broadband, mid-infrared emission (in the range of 3.5-5.5 µm) from optically clad Pr3+ doped GeAsGaSe fibre. The Pr3+ doped fibre-optic preform was fabricated by extrusion and drawn to optical fibre. Broadband mid- infrared photoluminescence was observed under 1.55 µm and 1.94 µm wavelength excitation. Absorption spectra, emission spectra and lifetimes have been measured and Judd-Ofelt parameters calculated. The radiative transition rates calculated from Judd-Ofelt theory were compared with experimental lifetimes. Strong broadband emission suggests that this fibre can be a good candidate for the realization of lasers or amplified spontaneous emission sources in the mid-infrared region. Two manuscripts with preliminary results of this cooperation have been submitted for publication [SP1,SP2].

Results - 2 - Nonlinearities in optical fibres - A cooperation between the Institute of Electronic Materials Technology (IEMT), Warsaw (PL) and Institute of Photonics and Electronics, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Prague (CZ) allowed Mr. Jaroslaw Cimek (ESR) to perform measurements of bulk glass refractive index and measurements of the dispersion, attenuation and nonlinear refractive index coefficient of microstructured optical fibers fabricated at IEMT. Both Institutions had the chance to cooperate and gain experience in measuring microstructured fibers made from the soft glasses, learning optimal techniques for cutting the endfaces of the fibers, and the focusing the light into the core of the microstructured and suspended-core fibers. This will lead to further progress in this field and a publication is foreseen summarizing the findings of this STSM.

Objective (iv) - Theory and advanced modelling of active and passive devices using

21 the experimental data. Results - 1 - The "Theory of nanophotonics Group" at the Center for Materials Physics (CSIC-UPV/EHU) in San Sebastian (Spain) focuses on the analysis of antenna modes at mid-IR and THz frequencies. The group has developed theoretical calculations and models to describe the near-field around mid-IR antennas where different molecular species can be probed by means of IR spectroscopy. The theoretical activities are developed in close cooperation with the experimental groups of Prof. Annemaire Pucci in Heidelberg (Germany) who develops mid-IR spectroscopy, and also the IR microscopy group of Dr. Rainer Hillenbrand at the center for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology of the Basque Country nanoGUNE (San Sebastian, Spain). Two papers have been published as consequences of their joint effort in this period and the mechanisms in the ACTION will make the cooperation even stronger over the next years [P1,P2].

Objective (vi) - Simulation and generation of intense THz and MIR radiation and its interaction with matter, including biomaterials, notably THz - macromolecules (proteins) interactions and propagation in nonlinear media.

Results - 1 - Cooperations between the group of Prof. Dr. Antonello Andreone from the Physics Department at Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II in Italy with the group of Prof. Hakan Altan at at Middle East Technical University (METU) in Akara Turkey and with Dr. G. Molis and Dr. A. Urbanovic at the Industrial Partner Teravil Ltd in Vilnius, Lithuania.

The home-built THz-time domain systems in Ankara with the metamaterials grown in Napoli complemented by further measurements made in Vilnius. This activity will continue through the Summer and a related STSM has been approved. Preliminary results will appear in the Proceedings of the NATO Tera-Mir Conference to be published by SPRINGER and more complete publications will be prepared [AB1].

WG3: Nonlinearities and interaction of radiation with matter including biomaterials - Objective (vi) - Simulation and generation of intense THz and MIR radiation and its interaction with matter, including biomaterials, notably THz - macromolecules (proteins) interactions and propagation in nonlinear media.

Results - 1 - A collaboration between METU and the group of Prof. Johan Stiens at Vrije Universiteit Brussels (VUB) - After and initial discussion with WG3 team leader, Prof. Johan Stiens, and group members the METU decided to measure biological samples with known responses in the THz region, initially in dry form followed by wet measurements. By collaborating with members from the Biology department at METU, L-tryp in polyethylene pellets is being investigated with differing concentrations. Some of the results have been submitted for publication, however the crucial next step is to monitor this absorption profile in different environmental conditions [SP3]. The collaboration through our COST action also has allowed METU to form a contribution to a group focused on developing spectroscopic techniques for biology led by one of the members in our Biology department at METU. Led by Prof. Johan Stiens this collaboration resulted in a submission to 7th framework (FP7MC-ITN-Marie-Curie Collaboration), titled SPECSCREEN.

Results - 2 - A collaboration between the teams of Dr. Marián Janek at Comenius University Bratislava, Slovak Republic and Dr. Mira Naftaly, at the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) in the UK, led to the successful measurement of organic-inorganic hybrid materials based on 2:1 type natural layered clay minerals. Successful detection of low frequency bands in montmorillonite and hectorite hosts modified with amines and amino acids, which were so far 22 now not reported in the literature. A related publication is under preparation.

Results - 3 - A collaboration between the National Institute for Laser Plasma & Radiation Physics -INFLPR- (RO) and Tampere Institute of Technology (FI) led to the construction of a 2-µm dual-wavelength VECSEL (vertical external-cavity surface-emitting laser) for efficient intracavity Difference Frequency Generation (DFG). Ms Gabriella Salamu (ESR) was sent to Tampere in a MP1204 STSM. The motivation was the use of GaAs as the nonlinear medium for DFG in the 1-2 THz range. The experience gained by the INFLPR in working with THz generation by using DFG will be very useful to carry out the scheduled experiment on high energy pulse THz generation by SFG (Sum Frequency Generation) and OR (Optical Rectification).

Results - 4 - The teams of INFLPR and University of Bucharest, Faculty of Biology (UB-FB) collaborated in the past in order to study proteins structure and flexibility in dry samples and aqueous solutions. Driven by the MP1204 Cost Action, their collaboration became closer and they started the study of protein structure and flexibility using time domain THz spectroscopy and molecular modeling in more complex systems: aqueous solutions with different protein concentrations, different pH values and ionic strengths. They also started the study of membrane proteins flexibility in the membrane of cells transfected with the protein of interest. In order to achieve these goals, they projected more suited sample holders. Preliminary results were presented at 1st Annual Conference of COST Action MP1204. Encouraging results on a new application of THz spectroscopy, namely assisting in solving proteins three- dimensional structures, were presented in a manuscript submitted for publication in the Special Issue of Optical and Quantum Electronics on “TERA-MIR Radiation: Materials, Generation, Detection and Applications” [SP4].

Results - 5 - High peak power short laser pulses were used for air filamentation THz generation in a common experiment INFLPR and UB Faculty of Physics (UB-FP); experimental setup is ready and experiments are under developing by using 15TW laser pulses. Furthermore, theoretical studies of optical rectification in nonlinear crystals of very large optical pulses (>1PW) is on going on an effort combining teams from INFLPR, UB-FP & “Politechnica” University Bucharest.

Results - 6 - The team of UB-FB collaborates with National Institute of Chemistry, Ljubljana, Slovenia and Semmelweis University, Hungary with the purpose of developing a software that automatically predicts the THz spectrum of proteins. The THz spectra required for validating the methodology will be recorded by the team from INFLPR.

Results - 7 - Recently, the teams of UB-FB and INFLPR started the collaboration with Ivan Buchvarov affiliated to Sofia University, Bulgaria and Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, USA. The purpose of the collaboration is minimizing the thermal and pressure damage occurring when using lasers tunable between 2.5 –5 µm with high average power (>1 W) and high pulse energy (>2 mJ) on tissue. The expected output is identifying the frequency at which the damage is minimum and explaining at the molecular level the thermal and pressure effects that can be seen when using the laser.

WG4: Generation and Detection based on Nitrides and Bismides Objective (ii) - Growth of novel bismuth structures containing InAsBi, GaSbBi, InSbBi and their quaternary and quinary alloys - Results - 1 - A new semiconductor alloy InPBi has been grown by MBE for the first time with excellent surface, crystal and optical quality. Room temperature PL reveals broad light emission centred at around 2 µm. This is a collaboration driven Prof. Shumin Wang Chalmers University (SE), Aalto University (SE), the Shanghai Institute of Microsystems and Information Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Shanghai Institute of 23 Technical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. The Chinese colleagues are going through the application process to become official partners of MP1204. Prof. Wang is now faculty at both Chalmers and SIMTP and attracted his Chinese colleagues to the ACTION [P3-P5, PA1].

Objective (iv) - Theory and advanced modelling of active and passive devices using the experimental data. Results - 1 - Driven by the needs of the ACTION, Analytical solutions for the linear and nonlinear optical absorption, gain, refractive index change and photoluminescence of isotropic and anisotropic semiconductor materials such as the bismides described above and nitrides has been developed at Sheffield Hallam University (UK) by the team led by Prof. Mauro F. Pereira. In contrast to previous theories it leads to simple analytical expressions that actually reduce to the excitonic case for low densities with a simple nonlinear expression. Comparisons of predictions vs measurements are under way.

Objective (v) - Construction and testing of the first FET based focal plane arrays for sub-THz and THz imaging [(v) in expected deliverables of scientific objectives of the MoU]: Results - 1 - A successful STSM conducted by Krzesimir Szkudlarek, an ESR from UNIPRESS (PL) at Montpellier (FR) allowed the characterization of Field Effect Transistors (FETs) and specially designed 3D-printed lenses matrixes. These matrixes consisted of nine (square 3x3) small lenses. Their diameters are 5 and 10 mm. These lenses amplify detected signal 4 and 10 times respectively. which will be crucial for the construction of future FET- based THz cameras.

 Significant scientific breakthroughs as part of the COST Action. (Specific examples)

Example 1 - At VUB – BE - Nano-liter liquid mixture sensing with sub-THz waves in special resonator with world-record sensitivity. Benchmarking for alcohol-water mixtures shows 60 dB better results than any performance mentioned in literature Example 2 - At VUB – BE - An ultra-sensitive resonant sensor will be patented for the characterization of biomolecules in nano-liter liquids and this in label-free, immobilization-free way. Example 3 - METU (TR) & VUB (BE) - As for biological samples we have been able to quantify L-tryp concentration in dry pellets using both changes in well-known absorptive features as well as changes in refractive index of the samples. While these results are encouraging, efforts are concentrated on detecting minute concentrations, which has not been achieved as of yet.

Examples 1-3, notably 3 are linked to Result 1, objective (vi) of WG3 in Section II.A.

Example 4 - TUD (DE), University of Athens (EL) and TEI of Athens (EL) will launch several publications highlighting the potential of noise reduction in optically injected QCL sources at specific operating regimes which comprise significant scientific findings benefiting noise sensitive applications such as spectroscopy and sensing in general.

Example 4 is linked to Result 1, objective (ii) of WG1 in Section II.A.

Example 5 - The lens matrixes tested in the STSM between UNIPRESS (PL) and Montpellier (FR) has show that the lenses amplify detected signals up to 10 times. This is a very big success because the new material was found to have small absorption in sub-THz range. This material allows using printing as a fabrication method - therefore is very well 24 adapted for matrix THz optical systems with a large number of pixels. This development is crucial for construction future THz cameras using Field Effect Transistors under development at UNIPRESS (PL).

Example 5 is linked to Result 1, objective (v) of WG4 in Section II.A.

Example 6 - The cooperation between Chalmers (SE) and SIMIT (China) led to new semiconductor alloy InPBi growth by Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE) for the first time. the samples show excellent surface, crystal and optical quality. The Room temperature photoluminescence reveals broad light emission centred at around 2 µm. This has a huge potential for applications to high quality layers for new devices.

Example 6 is linked to Result 1, objective (ii) of WG4 in Section II.A.

Example 7 - The improved analytical model for linear and nonlinear absorption, gain, refractive index change and photoluminescence of isotropic and anisotropic semiconductor materials developed at SHU (UK) to support the ACTION can potentially play a major role in the characterization of new materials developed along the ACTION and its predictive simulations can save considerable time and resources in growth and characterization.

Example 7 is linked to Result 1, objective (iv) of WG4 in Section II.A.

 Tangible medium term socio-economic impacts achieved or expected. (Specific examples)

 THz metametarials will gain importance as communication networks move into the mmw-THz region of the electromagnetic spectrum. In this regard the research that is planned in these projects will shed light into device architecture and aid in the development of new metamaterial structures.

 The work with simple amino-acids such as tryptophan is laying the foundation for projects that will look into complex biological systems. Recent developments in nanotechnology have aided biologists into making complex protein structures which have both interesting chemical and physical attributes. THz studies can aid in understanding these complex network.

 The construction of THz cameras based on FETs prototype has a huge commercial potential for THz imaging in many fields, e.g. medical imaging, non-destructive testing, materials characterization, security screening and detection, solar power optimization by detecting deffects and pharmaceutical formulation (solid dosage ).

 Spin off of new EC RTD Framework Programme proposals/projects. (List) - 7th framework (FP7MC-ITN-Marie-Curie Collaborations)

-SPECSCREEN, led by Prof. Dr. Feride Severcan from the Biology department at MET U, Turkey. METU and VUB (Belgium were partners). The project did not pass ITN thres hold and will be resubmitted.

-TERA-MIR, led by Prof. Mauro Pereira, with 8 Academic Teams and 3 Companies, all 25 members of MP1204 from the UK, SE, RO, PL, IT, FR, CH and NL. The proposal passed ITN threshold but did not achieve a score high enough for funding, but the fact that it was backed by a COST MP1204 was considered very positive by the referees and an improved version will be resubmitted to Horizon 2020.

- SAMSUNG 2013 GRO Program: TERA-MIR Source for Olfactory Biosensing, Led by Prof. Mauro Pereira at Sheffield Hallam University, UK; submitted to the and currently under evaluation.

 Spin off of new National Programme proposals/projects. (List)

COST MP1204 related proposals submitted and currently being evaluated

Belgium – “HERCULES” project in the field e-beam lithography, will be submitted in September 2013, coordinated by Gent University (UG): co-promoters: Gunter Roelkens (UG), Johan Stiens members (VUB); both national MC of our ACTION.

Luxembourg - led by Prof. Michel Marso:

-HiPoTHeS: High Power Terahertz Source based on Photomixing for continuous wave radiation, submitted to the Fonds National de la Recherche Luxembourg;

-PhoBoS: Photomixer-Based High-Power THz Sources, University of Luxembourg internal project proposal.

Poland - "Harmonia Project", led by Prof. Czeslaw Skierbiszewski of the Institute of High Pressuer Physics PAS, in Warsaw, THz Plasma instabilities in nitrides nanostructures.

Switzerland - Submitted to State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation SERI International Cooperation in Research and Innovation; COST Competence Centre:

-Development of a gain-validated transport model for mid-infrared Quantum Cascade Lasers, Led by Dr. Antoine Muller of Alpes Lasers (Industrial Partner);

-Zebasens - a zero-background trace gas sensor, Led by Dr. Lukas Emmenegger from the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (EMPA).

II.B. Inter-disciplinary networking

 Additional knowledge obtained from working with other disciplines within the COST framework. (Specific examples)

Example 1: The first ACTION WG Meeting took place in Warsaw, Poland and was organized as a joint meeting with the International Conference on Semiconductor Mid-IR Materials and Optics SMMO2013 and researchers from the various WGs could meet and discuss possible cooperations. This "Scientific Kick-Off" led to 11 STSMs proposed, 4 of which already concluded. Discussions within the working group WG3 during the technical meetings have formed a good basis for future collaboration in various fields. Among the topics proposed for future investigation within the ACTION we may highlight:

-Analyze the same biological samples using low power and very high power THz spectroscopy, linear absorption spectroscopy, etc. 26 -Investigate the non-linear response of biological samples (purified proteins and tissue samples) to very intense electric fields (for instance, at a peak electric field of 1 MW/cm)

-Since biological systems are complex and molecular modelling is limited at taking into account all components, perform experiments in the conditions that reproduce simulation conditions: the experiments should start with simple systems like dry/ hydrated tryptophan.

-Determine the importance of the THz spectrum for the characterization of clays.

-Validation of measurements of sub-THz measurements on biological tissue.

-MD simulation of Dissolved biomolecules, to be compared with experiments within the consortium.

-Investigate the same samples using several spectroscopy techniques.

-Investigate the response of biological samples to very intense electric field; study intense THz radiation damage on tissue; requirements of sample holders in order to improve acquired data quality; discussion on methods to fit simulation data in order to obtain theoretical THz spectra that can be compared to the experimentally measured ones

Example 3: The work done in WG3 has allowed the METU (TR) to team to collaborate with researchers in biology. The joint efforts and interest has driven the work on simple biological materials such as L-trytophan as proposed in Warsaw. Example 4: he METU collaboration in metametarials (WG2) has introduced them to people working in the field of metametarial design from the Electrical and Electronics engineering departments of other universities located in Turkey.

 Evaluation of whether the level of inter-disciplinarity is sufficient to potentially provide scientific impacts. (Specific examples)  The level of inter-disciplinarity amongst the action-members is excellent to potentially provide scientific impacts. Two examples are specifically named below which highlight the interdisciplinary approach on different aspects of the action of general scientific and technological interest.

(a) Applications of THz radiation to study biological samples. At METU, work with biologists has resulted in an article submission: “Concentration Based Measurement Studies of L- Tryptophan using THz-Time Domain Spectroscopy (THz-TDS)” Submitted To Applied Spectroscopy (2013)

(b) Applications of THz and MIR radiation to medical diagonistics through sensitive gas detection, since many gases in the breath have a well defined biopath connection to specific diseases. We hope to identify more gases. See the results related to the STSM between Ireland and Poland and the collaboration with Russia explained in more detail in Section II.A. (Innovative networking).

 Evaluation of whether the level of inter-disciplinarity is sufficient to potentially provide socio-economic impacts. (Specific examples)

The level of interdisciplinarity and the unusually strong interaction between Industry and Academia which will facilitate the transformation of science and technology into 27 commercial devices shows that the level of interdiscipliarity is more then sufficiently to provide socio-economic impacts

Example 1: The cooperation between the Industrial partner NTT with the Russian colleagues in Nyzhny Novgorod has potential for a huge impact in non-invasive medical diagnostics. Example 2: We are joining efforts with COST BM1205 - European Network for Skin Cancer Detection using Laser Imaging: MP1204 will send ESRs to their Training School in Belgrade in August and a Lecturer and the two ACTIONs will have a joint workshop in October in Sheffield bringing all WGs together in an effort to promote joint work in which devices, detection methods and materials developed at MP1204 could make an impact in the medical imaging sought by BM1205. We have a few MC members that joined both ACTIONs and they are proactive in their efforts for further collaboration.

II.C. New networking

 Additional new members joining the Action during its life. In the period September 2012 to July 2013 , nine new members joined the ACTION: Austria, Lithuania, Serbia, Denmark, Estonia, Greece, Slovenia, Croatia and Spain.

 Total number of individual participants involved in the Action work. (Number of participants. Give % of female and of Early Stage Researcher participants)

Total number of participants: 144 Number of Female: 45 Gender factor of the ACTION: 31.2% Total number of ESRs: 34 (23.6%)

 Involvement of Early Stage Researchers in the Action, in particular with respect to STSMs, networking activities, and Training Schools. In addition, justification should be provided if less than 4 STSMs were carried out during the year.

Kick-Off Meeting in Bruessels, 21/09/2012 . total no. of participants: 23 . female: 2 (Gender factor: 8.7%) . ESRs: 2 (8.7%)

Meeting in Warsaw, 27/02-3/03/2013 . total no. of participants: 39 . female: 6 (Gender factor: 15.4%) . ESRs: 5 (12.8%)

Training School in Cortona 20-24/05/2013 . total no. of participants: 34 . female: 4 (Gender factor: 11.8%) . iESRs: 31 (91%) . MC meeting in Paris, 8/07/2013 . total no. of participants: 32 . female: 6 (Gender factor: 18.7%) . ESRs: 3 (0.1%) 28 STSMs accomplished by 31/07/2013 . total no. of participants: 5 . female: 1 (Gender factor: 20%) . ESRs: 4 (80%)

. Summary - all events (STSMs as one event, no overlap of participants): . total no. of events: 5 . total no. of participants: 93 . women: 13 (Gender factor 14%) . ESRs: 41 (44%)

Notes: (i) The MC will be proactive in improving the gender balance in activities in the forthcoming activities foreseen for grant year 2013. (ii)Ten STSMs have been approved already for the grant year 2013. Only those from 29/09/2102 to 31/07/2013 are considered in this report.

 Involvement of researchers from outside of COST Countries. (Number of participants from non-COST Countries approved by the CSO. Give % of such participants from countries with reciprocal agreements. Specify their contribution) In the ACTION's MoU there are 9 proposed participants from 4 Non-Cost Countries: Brazil, Canada, Russian Federation and the USA. However, among these only two are effectively collaborating (Prof. Vladimir Vaks and Dr. Ekaterina Sobakinskaya from the Russian Federation. Their official application for CSO approval is under preparation. Also researchers at the Chinese Academy of Science are collaborating with ACTION members and will go through the application to join shortly. A summary of achievements of the cooperation with both Russian and Chinese colleagues is given in II.A.  Advancement and promotion of scientific knowledge through publications and other outreach activities.  Prof. Hakan Altan (TURKEY): member of PhD jury of PhD candidate in Brussels, Belgium  A NATO ARW, Chaired by the ACTION Chair in November 2012 brought together a number of researchers of this ACTION and the local organized (Prof. Lutfi Ozyuzer) is of the MC members for Turkey. The Proceedings to be published by Springer will include results that stems from collaboration within the ACTION.

 (Number of publications and other outreach activities that resulted from COST networking through the Action. Complete list should be given in an Annex)

. Papers- Published: 5; Accepted: 1; Submitted: 4 . Book Chapters- Accepted: 2 . Conferences/Workshops: 2 . Training Schools: 1 . STSMs: 5

 The capacity of the Action members to raise research funds. The ACTION is so recent that most of the research proposed driven by the ACTION are still being evaluated. The complete list of 3 International and 6 National Grant applications is given in Section II. A (under Spin off of new Programs, proposals/projects).

29 II.D. Self evaluation Indicate in no more than 1 page what, in the opinion of the MC, were the main successes, drawbacks (if any) and the key difficulties encountered (if any).

Our ACTION kicked off on 29/09/2102, relatively soon after the entry of force, to be able to combine WG members to apply for the last round of Marie Curie Initial Training Networks (ITN) in FP7. This was a correct strategic decision because even though we were above threshold but not high enough to be considered for funding, the referee report pointed out the importance of having a COST ACTION associated. We have a good starting point for Horizon 2020. Our funding started 01/01/2013, but due to all bureaucratic difficulties we could start spending only around March. We set our first Workshop as soon as a feasible by the end of February. Section II shows how efficient we have been in attracting new teams and countries and we keep it dynamical. The main difficulty was that for lack of experience we did not enforce gender equilibrium in the attendance of the first training school and meetings. The MC will be proactive to improve the gender balance in the forthcoming activities. Comments from MC Members stress the feeling that In the first year of this action, the opportunities offered (in terms of workshops and meetings) as well as the openness of the WG leaders has allowed the exploration of various areas in THz technologies, e.g. at METU (TR). There is a general hope that these research endeavours will prosper into tangible results for the entire THz and MIR community. We have reached in six months of actual funding the planned activities and outputs proposed in the Workplan delivered with the Grant Agreement for the first grant period - They were: The First Annual Conference of the Action overlapping with the WG and MC meeting and the first training school. Bridging the gap between independent research in the EU zone is clearly being achieved: Five of the STSM will be completed by 31/07/2013 leading to a correlation of efforts among the 10 STSMs already accepted and with the new budget we will make an effort to achieve a total of 20 STMS this budget year. .It should be highlighted the strong involvement of the Industry in the training STSMs and new proposal preparation activities - Training STSMs at one of the industrial partners have been approved for the second semester, the SMEs have participated in our grant bids and one of them applied for a national grant to support activities related to the ACTION. One of the main successes of the Action is putting together and promoting the cooperation between groups involved in developing technology and applications developers, as it is the case of biomedical applications. As an example of industry-academia outputs induced by methods and technologies made available through the ACTION and a STSM, the Romanian team at INFLPR started discussions with the local electrochemical and leather industry. Note also the build up of new cooperations within institutions as in the case of the THz team at METU starting to cooperate with biologists after the interaction with VUB (BE). Another example of strong input from the industry, is the Round Robin Action proposed by Alpes Lasers (CH) and STSMs from NTT (IT) ESRs to academic institutions both planned within the first grant year. A special highlight is for the industrial training of ESRs to be provided by ALPES Lasers and approved in the July MC Meeting. This activity should start in 2014, since ALPES requested more than 3 months for effective training. We plan another training school and Workhsops in the period August - December 2013, jointly with ACTION BM 1205. We are achieving our goal of combining the worlds of THz and MIR and all the results highlighted in II-A show how extremely successful we have been.

30 III. Previous scientific report(s)

Number of publications and other outreach activities that resulted from COST networking through the Action from 29/09/2102 to 31/07/2013

Note: The ACTION is very new so most papers related to cooperations induced by the ACTION or made stronger by it are either submitted and under evaluation or under preparation.

Published Papers-

1. Yi Gu, Yong-Gang Zhang, Yu-Xin Song, Hong Ye, Yuan-Ying Cao, Ai-Zhen Li and Shu-Min Wang, “Optical properties of InGaASBi/GaAs strained quantum wells studied by temperature- dependent photoluminescence” Chinese Physics B 22, 037802 (2013).

2. Hong Ye, Mahdad Sadeghi, Yuxin Song, Zonghe Lai, Yi Gu and Shumin Wang, “High quality strain-compensated multiple InAs/AlGaNAs quantum dot layers grown by MBE” Phys. Status Solidi c10, 765 (2013).

3. Xiren Chen, Yuxin Song, Liang Zhu, Shumin Wang, Wei Lu, Shaoling Guo and Jun Shao, “Shallow-terrace-like interface in dilute-bismuth GaSb/AlGaSb single quantum wells evidenced by photoluminescence” J. Appl. Phys. 113, 153505 (2013).

4. P. Alonso-González, P. Albella, F. Neubrech, C. Huck, J. Chen, F. Golmar, F. Casanova, L. E. Hueso, A. Pucci, J. Aizpurua, and R. Hillenbrand, "Experimental verification of the spectral shift between near- and far-field peak intensities of plasmonic infrared nanoantennas", Physical Review Letters 110, 203902 (2013).

5. P. Alonso-González, P. Albella, F. Golmar, L. Arzubiaga, F. Casanova, L.E. Hueso, J. Aizpurua, and R. Hillenbrand, "Visualizing the near-field coupling and interference of bonding and anti- bonding modes in infrared dimer nanoantennas", Optics Express 21, 1270 (2013).

Papers Accepted for Publication-

1. Yuxin Song, Shumin Wang, Ivy Saha Roy, Peixiong Shi, Anders Hallen and Zonghe Lai, “Molecular beam epitaxy growth of InSb1-xBix thin films” J. Cryst. Growth, accepted (2013).

Book Chapters to Appear - 31 1. Y. Song, Y. Gu, J. Shao and S. Wang, “Dilute Bismides for Mid-IR Applications” to appear in “Bismuth-Containing Compounds” edited by Zhiming M. Wang and Jiang Wu, Springer 2013.

2.THz hybrid metamaterial-liquid crystal based structures with large tunability, N. Chikhi, M. Lisit- skiy, G. Molis, A. Urbanovic, and A. Andreone, to appear in the NATO Science for Peace and Se- curity Series - B: Physics and Biophysics, Springer (2013).

Selected conference presentations-

1. N. C. Segercrantz, J. Kujala, F. Tuomisto, J. Slotte, Y. Song and S. M. Wang, “Defect studies in MBE grown GaSbBi layers” The 17th European Workshop on Molecular Beam Epitaxy, Levi, Finland, March 10-13, 2013.

2. Y. Gu, Y. G. Zhang, Y. X. Song, H. Zhao, H. Ye and S. M. Wang, “Optical properties of InGaAsBi/GaAs quantum wells and InAsBi layers on GaAs substrates” 4th International Workshop on Bismuth-Containing Semiconductors: Growth, Properties and Devices, Arkansas, USA, July 15- 17, 2013.

3. K. Wang, Y. Gu, Q Gong, H. F. Zhou, C. Z. Kang and S.M. Wang, “New semiconductor alloy InP1-xBix grown by molecular beam epitaxy” 30th North American Molecular Beam Epitaxy Conference (NAMBE2013), Banff, Canada, October 5-11, 2013.

Submitted Papers -

1. Numerical investigation of mid-infrared emission from Pr3+ doped GeAsGaSe fibre, Ayodele Oladeji, Lukasz Sojka, Zhuoqi Tang, David Furniss, Slawomir Sujecki, Andrew Phillips, Angela Seddon,Trevor Benson, Submitted to Optical and Quantum Electronics.

2. Broadband, mid-infrared emission from Pr3+ doped GeAsGaSe chalcogenide fiber, optically clad, L. Sójka, Z. Tang, D. Furniss, A. Oladeji, E. Bereś-Pawlik, H. Dantanarayana, A. B. Seddon, T. M. Benson and S. Sujecki, Submitted to Optics Letters.

3. Validation of protein structural models using THz spectroscopy: a promising approach to solve three-dimensional structures, Maria Mernea, Octavian Calborean, Oana Grigore, Traian Dascalu, Dan Florin Mihailescu, Submitted to Optical and Quantum Electronics.

4. Concentration Based Measurement Studies of L-Tryptophan using THz-Time Domain Spectroscopy, Zeynep Özer, Seher Gök, Hakan Altan, Feride Severcan, submitted to Applied Spectroscopy, ISSN 0003-7028.

Outreach Activities: For full details visit the ACTION’s website: http://www.tera-mir.org

1. NATO Advanced Research Workshop on Detection of Explosives and CBRN (Using Tera hertz) TERA-MIR 2012

Venue: Cesme, Izmir, Turkey Dates: 3 to 6 November 2012

32 Conference web page: http://www.tera-mir.org/main/TERA-MIR2012 Conference funded by NATO with logistic and organizational support of MP1204.

2. 1ST ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF COST ACTION MP1204 & SMMO2013

Venue: Institute of Electron Technology, Warsaw, Poland Dates: February 27 to March 2, 2013 Conference web page: http://www.ite.waw.pl/cost-smmo2013/ MP1204 WG Meeting and Workshop

3. School of Photonics 2013

Venue: Cortona, ITALY Dates: May 20–24, 2013 Conference web page: http://web.nano.cnr.it/scuolafotonica2013/ MP1204 Training School

Short Term Scientific Missions:

STSM Report Applicant name From To Period Report due no. submitted

13390 Gabriela Salamu RO FI 01/06/2013- 20/08/2013 31/07/2013 28/04/2013- 13477 Jaroslaw Cimek PL CZ 03/06/2013 05/06/2013 11/05/2013 02/06/2013- 13420 Mariusz Klimczak PL IE 05/07/2013 02/07/2013 14/06/2013 Krzesimir 24/06/2013- 13630 PL FR 05/08/2013 25/07/2013 Szkudlarek 15/07/2013 01/07/2013- 13893 Adonis Bogris EL DE 26/07/2013 26/07/2013 05/07/2013