Abstract-Experimental and Theoretical Study of Strong Low-Terahertz Absorption of Thymine

W.-D. Zhang, A. Bykhovski, J. A. Deibel,, E. R. Brown

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10762-017-0420-z

The absorption coefficient of a nucleobase-thymine-in powder form was measured with terahertz spectroscopy in both frequency- and time-domain experiments. For frequencies below 3 THz, a strong signature was observed at 1.27 THz. Furthermore, molecular-dynamic simulations were conducted to reveal that the 1.27 THz absorption signature is related to a transverse optical phonon mode. The simulations also indicated that bound water molecules are vital to the vibrational mode.