Communications: Polarity fluctuations of the protic ionic liquid ethylammonium nitrate in the terahertz regime

We have measured the complex dielectric function of the protic ionic liquid ethylammonium nitrate in the frequency range between 0.15 and 1.8 THz with a terahertz time domain spectrometer. The experiments reveal a terahertz mode which can be described as a damped harmonic oscillator with a central frequency of 1.3 THz. The terahertz mode is assigned to an intermolecular vibration, presumably associated with hydrogen-bond dynamics. The data are combined with microwave data to represent the dielectric spectrum from quasistatic conditions up to 1.8 THz.