”Being part of a conference like this is an incredible opportunity to meet researchers, students, and industry professionals from around the world. Hopefully, we’ll build some lasting connections,” says Chalmers student Gabriel Josefsson, who, along with three fellow students, presented a paper based on their bachelor's thesis at this year's International Conference on Infrared, Millimeter, and Terahertz Waves.
In mid-August, the fiftieth edition of the International Conference on Infrared, Millimeter, and Terahertz Waves, IRMMW-THz, took place in Espoo, Finland. The conference, which started in 1974, is the oldest and foremost of its kind in the field of ultrahigh-frequency electronics. Among this year's many submitted presentations was a conference paper based on a bachelor's project by four third-year electrical engineering students from the Department of Microtechnology and Nanoscience at Chalmers.
”It’s both exciting and an honor to have our work recognized. Presenting it on an international stage is a fantastic opportunity to share our findings and, at the same time, learn from other research in the field,” says Agnes Jartun, one of the students.
It was during a routine progress meeting that the students’ supervisors realized the project was of such high quality it could potentially qualify as a conference submission.
“At one of our weekly meetings, we presented what we’d accomplished that week. Suddenly, one of the supervisors exclaimed, ‘We could publish this!’ So we did - we wrote a conference paper and submitted it. Then all we could do was wait for the results. We were thrilled when we found out we’d been accepted,” says Valter Fredriksson.
Positioned between the optical region with short wavelengths and radio waves at the long-wavelength end, the terahertz - or far-infrared - region is often referred to as the final scientific frontier in the electromagnetic spectrum. With the title ”Simulation of Amplitude Modulated Resonant Tunneling Diode Oscillator”, the Chalmers students’ paper fit naturally into the conference program.
“Our paper is based on simulations of a resonant tunneling diode oscillator, where we explored its behavior during amplitude modulation - also known as ‘on-off keying.’ We aimed to demonstrate that there’s an upper limit to data transmission, even under ideal conditions with minimal losses,” explains Christoffer Johansson.
By bringing together international researchers from fields as diverse as space science, nuclear fusion, chemistry, and biology, the IRMMW-THz conference aims to expand its reach to those who can benefit from the latest advances in far-infrared technology.
“Being part of a conference like this is an incredible opportunity to meet researchers, students, and industry professionals from around the world. Hopefully, we’ll build some lasting connections. It’s also a highly stimulating environment for anyone considering a future in research - you gain unique insight into current studies and how the research process actually works,” says Gabriel Josefsson.
So, how did the presentation go?
“It exceeded all expectations, and the trip was incredibly rewarding. During the presentation, we spoke with researchers who had worked on the exact same component, which sparked a lot of ideas for future development. It also introduced us to many fascinating areas and gave us a broader view of the research world and its many dimensions,” says Christoffer Johansson.