Surpassing kilometer-scale terahertz wireless communication beyond 300 GHz enabled by hybrid photonic–electronic synergy

Yuancheng Cai; Lin Zhang; Jiao Zhang; Bingchang Hua; Kexin Ma; Junjie Ding; Xingwang Bian; Mingzheng Lei; Yingzhou Liu; Jiankang Li; Zhigang Xin; Xingyu Chen; Jun Cai; Pan Pan; Yongming Huang; Jinjun Feng; Min Zhu; Xiaohu You

doi:10.1038/s41377-026-02321-6

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Surpassing kilometer-scale terahertz wireless communication beyond 300 GHz enabled by hybrid photonic–electronic synergy

Original Articles

- Surpassing kilometer-scale terahertz wireless communication beyond 300 GHz enabled by hybrid photonic–electronic synergy
- Light: Science & Applications Vol. 15, Issue 8, Pages: 2571-2584(2026)
- Affiliations：
  
  1.Purple Mountain Laboratories, Nanjing, China
  2.National Mobile Communications Research Laboratory, Southeast University, Nanjing, China
  3.National Key Laboratory of Science and Technology on Vacuum Electronics, Beijing Vacuum Electronics Research Institute, Beijing, China
- Author bio：
  
  Jinjun Feng (fengjinjun@cetc.com.cn)
  Min Zhu (minzhu@seu.edu.cn)
  Xiaohu You (xhyu@seu.edu.cn)
- Funds：
- DOI：10.1038/s41377-026-02321-6
  CLC：
- Received：25 August 2025，
  
  Revised：2026-03-30，
  
  Accepted：17 April 2026，
  
  Online First：09 May 2026，
  
  Published：31 August 2026
- Accepted：
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Cai, Y. C. et al. Surpassing kilometer-scale terahertz wireless communication beyond 300 GHz enabled by hybrid photonic–electronic synergy. Light: Science & Applications, 15, 2571-2584 (2026).
DOI：

Cai, Y. C. et al. Surpassing kilometer-scale terahertz wireless communication beyond 300 GHz enabled by hybrid photonic–electronic synergy. Light: Science & Applications, 15, 2571-2584 (2026). DOI： 10.1038/s41377-026-02321-6.

摘要

Abstract

Terahertz (THz) bands are critical for next-generation wireless fronthaul/backhaul applications. However

they face a fundamental coverage range limitation due to low emission power

severe path loss

and poor receiving sensitivity

especially in photonics-assisted THz systems beyond 300 GHz. To address this limitation

we develop a 335 GHz continuous-wave traveling wave tube amplifier with an output power close to 4 W and a gain of over 50 dB

and construct a novel yet simple diversity receiving scheme to improve the receiving signal-to-noise ratio by ~3 dB. Through hybrid photonic–electronic synergy

combining photonics-assisted THz generation

high-power THz amplification

and spatial diversity reception

a record-breaking kilometer-scale THz wireless communication at 335 GHz—a highly challenging atmospheric window—is demonstrated. We first achieve a net rate of 27.84 Gbit s

−1

over a 2.2 km wireless link—yielding an unprecedented rate–distance product of 61

248 Gbit s

−1

∙ m—beyond 300 GHz to the best of our knowledge.

关键词

Keywords

references

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