Past, present, and future of infrared and terahertz activities in China

Mid-infrared, Far-infrared, and terahertz bands (wavelength λ ≈ 3 μm ∼ 3 mm in vacuum) in electromagnetic spectrum have many important applications, for example, remote sensing, homeland security, health and medicine, cosmology, and free-space communication. During the past thirty years, essential progress has been made in radiation sources, detectors and their arrays, functional devices, and application systems working in infrared and terahertz bands in China. In this talk, we will focus on the research of coherent infrared and terahertz sources, room-temperature and cryogenic detector focal plane arrays, terahertz functional devices, and terahertz time-domain spectroscopy and imaging systems. Finally, some possible development directions in infrared and terahertz science and technology in China are discussed.