We investigate the conductivity of single-stranded and double-stranded herring deoxyribose nucleic acid (DNA) in buffer solution spotted and dried on Au nanocontacts. We find an exponential increase of the conductivity with increasing humidity that is identical for single- and double-stranded DNA within the measurement accuracy. While the small conductivity of dry DNA is comparable to that of a large band-gap semiconductor, we attribute the increase at high humidity levels to water molecules accumulated at the phosphate backbone. For high humidities we observe s-shaped current-voltage characteristics that can be well explained by the dissociation of water attached to the DNA molecules.
We have performed an optoelectronic measurement of the impulse response of an ultrafast sampling oscilloscope with a nominal bandwidth of 100 GHz within a time window of approximately 100 ps. Our experimental technique also considers frequency components above the cutoff frequency of higher-order modes of the 1.0 mm coaxial line, which is shown to be important for the specification of the impulse response of ultrafast sampling oscilloscopes. Additionally, we have measured the reflection coefficient of the sampling head induced by the mismatch of the sampling circuit and the coaxial connector which is larger than 0.5 for certain frequencies. The uncertainty analysis has been done using the Monte Carlo method of Supplement 1 to the 'Guide to the Expression of Uncertainty in Measurement' and correlations in the estimated impulse response have been determined. Our measurements extend previous work which deals with the characterization of 70 GHz oscilloscopes and the measurement of 100 GHz oscilloscopes up to the cutoff frequency of higher-order modes.
The question whether nonionizing electromagnetic radiation of low intensity can cause functional effects in biological systems has been a subject of debate for a long time. Whereas the majority of the studies have not demonstrated these effects, some aspects still remain unclear, e.g., whether high-frequency radiation in the terahertz range affects biological systems. In particular for frequencies higher than 0.150 THz, investigations of the ability of radiation to cause genomic damage have not been performed. In the present study, human skin cells were exposed in vitro to terahertz radiation at two specific frequencies: 0.380 and 2.520 THz. Power intensities ranged from 0.03-0.9 mW/cm(2) and the cells were exposed for 2 and 8 h. Our goal was to investigate whether the irradiation induced genomic damage in the cells. Chromosomal damage was not detected in the different cell types after exposure to radiation of both frequencies. In addition, cell proliferation was quantified and found to be unaffected by the exposure, and there was no increase in DNA damage measured in the comet assay for both frequencies. For all end points, cells treated with chemicals were included as positive controls. These positive control cells clearly showed decreased proliferation and increased genomic damage. The results of the present study are in agreement with findings from other studies investigating DNA damage as a consequence of exposure to the lower frequency range (<0.150 THz) and demonstrate for the first time that at higher frequencies (0.380 and 2.520 THz), nonionizing radiation does not induce genomic damage.
We present a tunable multifrequency continuous wave terahertz spectrometer based on two laser diodes, photoconductive antennas, and a coherent detection scheme. The system is employed to determine the absolute thickness of samples utilizing a proposed synthetic difference frequency method to circumvent the 2π uncertainty known from conventional photomixing systems while preserving a high spatial resolution.
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