Terahertz Microchip for Illicit Drug Detection

To accurately detect minute amounts of substances without disturbing the surroundings of target molecules has been a major goal in bioanalytical technology. Here by integrating an optoelectronic terahertz (THz) microsource into a glass-substrated microchip within the near-field distance, we demonstrate a compact, label-free, noninvasive, and sensitive microbiosensing system with low-power consumption. The demonstrated THz microchip allows us to locally specify various illicit drug powders with weights of nanograms, with a promising future for rapid identification of the static status or even the dynamics of various biomolecules.