This course provides graduate students with an overview of the unique properties of terahertz waves and potential applications as well as the state of the current terahertz systems and their major technological challenges. The topics covered in this course include: terahertz sources (vacuum-electronics-based, semiconductor-based, photoconduction-based and nonlinearity-based), terahertz detectors (single-photon detectors, microbolometers, Golay cells, Pyroelectric detectors and focal-plane arrays), terahertz electronic components (waveguides, Metamaterials, filters and modulators), sensing with terahertz radiation (terahertz spectroscopy, imaging and tomography), and terahertz applications (biology, medicine, space sciences, pharmaceutical industry, security and communications).

The course covers basic principles of optics: light sources and propagation of light; geometrical optics, lenses and imaging; ray tracing and lens aberrations; interference of light waves, coherent and incoherent light beams; Fresnel and Fraunhofer diffraction.

The topics covered in this course lay the foundation for advanced EM, Optics, RF and Microwave courses: time-varying electromagnetic fields and Maxwell's equations, plane-wave propagation, reflection, and transmission, geometric optics, radiation and antennas, system applications of electromagnetic waves. Laboratory segment consists of experiments involving microwave and optical measurements and the design of practical systems.

The course gives an introduction to concepts of modern physics necessary to understand solid-state devices, including elementary quantum theory, Fermi energies, and concepts of electrons in solids. Discussion of electrical properties of semiconductors leading to operation of junction devices is also covered.