Terahertz Biomedical Science and Technology. Chapter 10: Terahertz Spectroscopic Insight into the Structure–Function Relation in Protein Moleculesкнига
Место издания:CRC Press Taylor & Francis Group Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London, W1T 3JH
Объём:
30 страниц
ISBN:9781466570443
Монография
Аннотация:Microwave and far-infrared molecular spectroscopy has a long and distinguished history with significant involvement in at least nine Nobel Prizes* going back to Bloch and Purcell in 1952, right up to Haroche and Wineland in 2012, who relied on a unique submillimeter-wave vector network analyzer invented by noted terahertz pioneer Philippe Goy1 to study their Rydberg atoms. The generation and coherent detec- tion of subpicosecond electronic transients pioneered by Auston and Nuss2,3 at Bell Laboratories in the 1980s and by Grischkowsky4,5 at IBM and the advent of mode-locked Ti:sapphire femtosecond lasers6 in the early 1990s greatly expanded the field of terahertz spectroscopy and made it accessible to a wide community of researchers spanning fields as diverse as ultrafast chemistry, quantum physics, biology, and medicine.
Over the last two decades, there has been a very strong interest in applying these technically chal- lenging techniques and instruments toward a better understanding of the low energy (molecular level) interactions that dominate chemical and biological processes at ambient and cryogenic temperatures. Of particular interest is “a universal first principles model for water, the most important molecule in the universe” (p. 265),7 which can only be completed using the full suite of far-infrared sources, detec- tors, and measurement techniques that are now being developed and utilized in laboratories around the globe.
This very comprehensive compendium of state-of-the-art research articles covering terahertz devices, measurement techniques, and applications—specific to biological and biomedical interests and uses— represents a wonderful introduction and a lasting reference for those who wish to survey and understand the growing interest in this burgeoning technological field. The list of distinguished contributors spans some of the best research groups and the most notable experts in the world today. Specific topics include terahertz sources and detectors, pulsed and continuous wave circuitry, imaging and tomography tech- niques, guided wave components, spectroscopic studies of water, protein solvates, and biomolecules, as well as biological interactions with THz electromagnetic fields and recent applications in the biomedical field— drug absorption, cancer detection, and nanoparticle probing.
Although the applications of terahertz spectroscopy and imaging in the biological sciences are still extremely limited, and the efficacy of these techniques when compared with more established modali- ties is still a very open issue of debate, the reader will not be disappointed with the scope and depth of the studies included in this very early text, which captures the enthusiasm and excitement that comes with the foundations and the opening up of a new field of scientific investigation.