Determination of the water vapor continuum absorption by THz-TDS and Molecular Response Theory

Determination of the water vapor continuum absorption from 0.35 to 1 THz is reported. The THz pulses propagate though a 137 m long humidity-controlled chamber and are measured by THz time-domain spectroscopy (THz-TDS). The average relative humidity along the entire THz path is precisely obtained by measuring the difference between transit times of the sample and reference THz pulses to an accuracy of 0.1 ps. Using the measured total absorption and the calculated resonance line absorption with the Molecular Response Theory lineshape, based on physical principles and measurements, an accurate continuum absorption is obtained within four THz absorption windows, that agrees well with the empirical theory. The absorption is significantly smaller than that obtained using the van Vleck-Weisskopf lineshape with a 750 GHz cut-off. (C) 2014 Optical Society of America