Far-infrared vibrational modes of DNA components studied by terahertz time-domain spectroscopy

Quantitative Measurements of Amino Acids by Terahertz Time-Domain Transmission Spectroscopy

The quantitative analysis of amino acids by terahertz (THz) time-domain absorption spectroscopy is demonstrated. The optical densities of the amino acids were found to be linearly proportional to the concentration. The molar absorption coefficients of L-glutamic acid (L-Glu), L-glutamic acid sodium salt (Na-L-Glu), L-glutamic acid hydrochloric salt (HCl-L-Glu), L-cysteine (L-Cys), and L-histidine (L-His) were calculated by averaging the THz spectra of the amino acids at several different concentrations in approximately the 0.2-1.0 mol L(-1) range. The concentrations of L-Glu, L-Cys, and L-His mixed samples were successfully calculated with errors of less than 11% and 20% when their concentrations were higher than 0.45 and 0.22 mol L(-1), respectively, by using the obtained molar absorption coefficient.

Deviation of optical constants extracted in terahertz transmission spectroscopy

We present a simulation with a Lorentz oscillator model to evaluate the accuracy of the extracted optical constants in terahertz transmission spectroscopy. The contributions of various error sources including the deflection of the incident angle, the delay-line timing error, and two other kinds of noises are analyzed. It is revealed that the influence of the deflection angle is an approximate parabolic dependence. The delay-line timing uncertainty introduces an exponential frequency dependence in the deviation of the extinction coefficient and a distinct change in the refractive index data in the resonant region. When background and 1/f noises are introduced, the deviation mainly concentrates in the resonant region.

Applications of terahertz spectroscopy to pharmaceutical sciences

The application of terahertz pulsed spectroscopy within the US Food and Drug Administration's (FDA's) recent process analytical technology (PAT) initiative is considered. As a case study the potency levels in paracetamol (4-acetamidophenol) and aspirin (acetylsalicylic acid) test tablets have been recovered from the terahertz absorption spectra using a multivariate partial-least-squares (PLS) calibration model. Root-mean-square errors of cross-validation (RMSECVs) of 2.85% and 3.90% were obtained for paracetamol and aspirin, respectively. Information about other excipients can also be obtained; for example, using the strong lactose absorption lines in the tablets, RMSECVs of 3.65% and 4.30% could be recovered from the paracetamol and aspirin samples, respectively. As active ingredients may also change their solid-state form during formulation processing or storage and as this can adversely affect the final dosage performance, monitoring of pharmaceutical ingredients is essential for a 'right-first-time' philosophy within the industry. Terahertz pulse spectroscopy is a high-throughput technique with many areas of potential exploitation in the pharmaceutical industry; these issues are discussed in this paper.

A functionalized THz sensor for marker-free DNA analysis

We report on a novel resonant THz sensor for the label-free analysis of DNA molecules. The sensor allows the direct detection of DNA-probe molecules at functionalized electrodes via hybridization. Subsequent time resolved photoconductive sampling of the THz transmission identifies the binding state between probe and target DNA. Integrating neighbouring sensors on a chip, this technique can be extended to a parallel analysis of multiple DNA sequences. A clearly readable sensor response is obtained with less then 40 fmol of 20-mer single-stranded DNA molecules, indicating at least a sevenfold sensitivity increase compared to previous approaches.