| Terahertz (THz) vibrational resonance spectroscopy has recently emerged as a promising technique for fingerprinting biological molecules. Absorption spectra in this frequency range (0.1-10 THz) reflect molecular internal vibrations involving the weakest hydrogen bonds and/or non-bonded interactions, which are species specific. Of prime importance is improving detection sensitivity of molecules with low absorption characteristics in the THz gap. Also of importance is the characterization of biological molecules in the THz gap (10-25 cm-1) by physical parameters (refractive index and absorption coefficient) rather than sample dependent parameters (transmission, reflection) and extending spectroscopy to the low THz range where remote sensing is most viable.; To address the sensitivity issue, it is shown that periodic arrays of rectangular slots with subwavelength width provide for local electromagnetic field enhancements due to edge effects in the low frequency range of interest, 10-25 cm-1 (300-750 GHz). Periodic structures of Au, doped Si and InSb were studied. InSb is confirmed to offer the highest results with the local power enhancements on the order of 1100 at frequency 14 cm -1. InSb and Si have large skin depths in the frequency range of interest and so the analysis of their structures was done through the Fourier expansion method of field diffracted from gratings. Au however has small skin depths at these frequencies compared to the thickness. Surface impedance boundary conditions were employed to model the Au structure, for which the Fourier expansion method was unsuitable owing to the huge magnitude of Au permittivity. The applications possibly include development of novel bio-sensors, with the strongly enhanced local electromagnetic fields leading to increased detection sensitivity, and monitoring biophysical processes such as DNA denaturation.; Transmission and reflection data from parallel, independent experiments are utilized in the Interference Spectroscopy Technique model based on thin film interference to calculate the fine structure of refractive index and absorption coefficient of biological molecules (DNA, proteins) in the THz gap. As to spectroscopy in the low THz range (3-10 cm-1), a noise source was used in free space configuration in the FT-IR set-up to obtain transmission and reflection data of biological molecules that act as fingerprints. |
