Empa start-up Lepto wants to close the terahertz gap

(CONNECT) Lepto GmbH from Dübendorf, a spin-off of the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Empa) founded in 2025, wants to bring its invention to market with the help of investors. According to a report by Empa, the two founders, CEO Elena Mavrona and CTO Erwin Hack, have developed highly effective terahertz filters in six years of research at Empa's Transport at Nanoscale Interfaces laboratory and have applied for a patent. As the two researchers also show in an Empa video, their terahertz filters consist of a thin polymer film with a microstructured surface made of pure gold, which is attached to a 3D-printed frame. This makes them particularly lightweight and customizable.

These filters and other components that the start-up is now developing, such as polarizers, are intended to help close the terahertz gap. The terahertz range was hardly researched for a long time, and technologies for generating and measuring radiation in this electromagnetic spectrum were correspondingly thin on the ground. It lies in the electromagnetic spectrum between the short-wave light and infrared waves and the longer micro- or gigahertz waves that are used for the majority of wireless communication technologies, from Bluetooth to WLAN.

"On the one hand, terahertz spectroscopy is an excellent method for investigating many phenomena in astrophysics and geophysics," Mavrona is quoted as saying. "On the other hand, terahertz is also ideal for communication between satellites and between a satellite and the earth." Terahertz is also considered a key technology for the next 6G mobile communications standard. In addition, it can penetrate superficial layers of tissue and is less harmful than X-rays. Applications on the skin are therefore possible, for example to diagnose cancer or to examine superficial blood vessels. There are other potential applications in security, such as body scans at airports.

Lepto is supported by glatec, Empa's business incubator, and by coaching from the Swiss Innovation Agency Innosuisse. Elena Mavrona is one of three Empa researchers who have been awarded the one-year Empa Entrepreneur Fellowship 2025. Lepto is currently looking for pre-seed funding. ce/mm