Development of THz wave oscillation and its application to molecular sciences

Abstract

Abstract:In 1967, a THz wave was generated for the first time using a free electron laser; however, the device was too expensive to be used widely. The author published the idea of THz wave generation by use of resonating vibration between paired atoms in polymer or crystal in 1965, and succeeded with K. Suto to generate a 12 THz wave in 1983. In 1999, the author invited K. Kawase and H. Ito to Sendai RIKEN to realize the concept by use of dielectrics; in 2000, they succeeded in realizing a sweep generator. In the same year, the author suggested the idea of applying the THz wave to cancer diagnosis and treatment, particularly by improving heating selectivity: This enhances the effect of medications by raising only the temperature of the cancer itself, not of the surrounding atomic pairs in the neighborhood. These applications are expected to spread quickly as powerful methodology based on molecular science. The reason for this is that the much improved waveform generated enables higher selectivity, allowing the detection of the existence of abnormal polymer near the paired atoms by measuring resonating frequency between paired atoms.

Metamaterial-enhanced vibrational absorption spectroscopy for the detection of protein molecules

“… 25 . However, the absorption spectra of BSA in the THz may vary depending on the preparation (treatment temperature) of the films as well as the molecule’s conformation at the interface and the wettability on specific substrates 26 27 . The BSA spectrum was plotted with the MM spectrum to emphasize the spectral matching of the MM resonance and the target molecules’ signal.…”

Analysis of the specific vibration modes of goethite (α-FeOOH) by terahertz spectroscopy and calculations of the vibration frequencies of a single molecule using density functional theory

“…Thus, we have devoted much attention to studying this phenomenon [2][3][4] . As THz spectroscopy has developed, the infrared activities of many organic and biological substances have been reported [5][6][7][8][9][10] ; however, the infrared activity of…”

Terahertz-wave spectrometer based on a coherent terahertz-wave parametric generator

“…1,2 Its application in probing the low-energy vibrational spectroscopy plays a significant role in studying the conformation of biological and chemical. 3 Despite its importance, however, THz-wave spectroscopy has been hindered by the lack of suitable spectrometers, and in the past ten years, great efforts have been made to develop THz-wave spectroscopic systems.…”