Terahertz Study of Chiral and Racemic Crystals

We studied far-infrared signatures of various molecules of biological importance using terahertz time-domain-spectroscopy. Spectral fingerprints in this frequency range are highly sensitive to the inter-and intra-molecular binding and long range order. As a consequence, phonon-Iike absorption modes differ, depending on whether a chiral or a racemic polycrystalline powder is used. In this contribution, we will present spectra of various chiral and racemic substances and discuss how our measurements could be used to gain a deeper understanding of inter-and intra-molecular binding.