Terahertz Wireless Communication Systems

Terahertz wireless communication systems operate within the spectral region between roughly 0.1 THz and 10 THz, bridging the gap between microwave and infrared frequencies. This band offers exceptionally large contiguous bandwidths, enabling data rates well above 100 Gbps and potentially into the terabit-per-second regime. Such capacity is critical for next-generation wireless networks, high-resolution imaging, secure short-range links and ultrafast backhaul for fibre-wireless convergence. Key challenges include severe free-space path loss, atmospheric absorption lines, beam steering and alignment, as well as limitations of electronic and photonic components at these frequencies. Recent progress in photonic generation techniques, integrated silicon photonic circuits, plasmonic devices and advanced antenna designs has steadily improved power efficiency, spectral purity and link robustness. Moreover, novel lens and metasurface antennas, together with digital signal-processing algorithms, are enabling adaptive beamforming to overcome propagation constraints. Collectively, these advances point towards practical indoor and outdoor deployments in future 6G and beyond networks, where terahertz links will complement existing millimetre-wave and optical infrastructures to deliver unprecedented connectivity for data-intensive applications.

Research from Nature Portfolio

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Research from all publishers

Recent work has demonstrated the advantages of constant-envelope modulation in photonic-wireless sub-THz links, showing that continuous phase modulation can mitigate non-linear distortion in high-speed photodiodes and achieve error-free data transmission at rates approaching 7.5 GBaud over a 107.5 GHz link. Complementary studies on antenna design have introduced a Fresnel lens optimised for the 300 GHz band, yielding measured gains of around 45 dB and enabling long-distance links with compact, low-loss optics. In parallel, integration of coherent terahertz transceivers on silicon photonic chips has been reported, using dual-parallel Mach–Zehnder modulators and advanced digital equalisation to suppress phase noise and inter-channel crosstalk, thus achieving error-free transmission at 50 Gbps over metre-scale free-space links. These developments underscore the synergy between waveform engineering, novel antenna architectures and photonic integration in advancing terahertz link performance.

Terahertz Wireless Communication Systems publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in terahertz wireless communication systems across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Terahertz band: Electromagnetic frequencies from approximately 0.1 THz to 10 THz, between microwaves and infrared.

Continuous phase modulation (CPM): A constant-envelope digital modulation scheme that maintains a continuous phase trajectory to reduce non-linear distortion.

Fresnel lens: A compact diffractive lens composed of concentric annular sections, designed to focus electromagnetic waves with reduced material thickness.

Mach–Zehnder modulator (MZM): An interferometric electro-optic device that encodes data onto an optical carrier by varying the relative phase in two arms.

Silicon photonic integrated circuit: A chip integrating multiple optical components—such as modulators, waveguides and detectors—on a silicon substrate for compact photonic signal processing.

References

1. Continuous Phase Modulation Proposal for Photonics-Wireless Sub-THz Transmissions. IEEE Access (2024).
2. New Design Scheme for and Application of Fresnel Lens for Broadband Photonics Terahertz Communication. Sensors (2024).
3. Coherent terahertz wireless communication using dual-parallel MZM-based silicon photonic integrated circuits.. Optics Express (2022).