Abstract
During the past several years we have utilized fluidic-chip and waveguide-concentrator technology in combination with high-resolution frequency-domain THz spectroscopy to detect absorption signatures in biomolecules and bioparticles of various types, especially the nucleic acids and bacterial spores. Some of the signatures have been surprisingly narrow (<20 GHz FWHM), leading to the hypothesis that the fluidic chips can enhance certain vibrational resonances because of their concentrating and linearizing effects. For solid or moist bio-samples, circular waveguide coupling allows signature detection of small quantities with some degradation of sensitivity but no loss of resolution. It concentrates the radiation, not the biomaterial. This method was used to demonstrate strong THz signatures in bacterial spores (e.g., Bacillus thuringiensis).
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Acknowledgments
 This material is based upon work supported by, or in part by, the U. S. Army Research Laboratory and the U. S. Army Research Office under contract numbers W911NF-11-1-0024 and W911NF-11-C-0080.
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Brown, E.R. et al. (2014). High-Resolution THz Spectroscopy of Biomolecules and Bioparticles: Concentration Methods. In: Pereira, M., Shulika, O. (eds) Terahertz and Mid Infrared Radiation: Detection of Explosives and CBRN (Using Terahertz). NATO Science for Peace and Security Series B: Physics and Biophysics. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-8572-3_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-8572-3_2
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