Probing structure and phase-transitions in molecular crystals by terahertz time-domain spectroscopy

Since the introduction of ultra-fast laser techniques for the generation and detection of broadband terahertz pulses, terahertz time-domain spectroscopy has become a versatile tool for vibrational spectroscopy of molecular systems in the far-infrared. Due to their highly collective and delocalized character vibrational modes in this part of the spectrum are highly sensitive to molecular structure and arrangement within a molecular crystal. Here we utilize this sensitivity to differentiate between the enantiopure amino acid L-cysteine and its racemic crystalline DL-form. Using terahertz time-domain spectroscopy we are able to observe temperature induced solid-state phase transitions in polycrystalline DL-cysteine, as well as in polycrystalline benzoic acid. The dynamics of the transitions is studied by tracing the temperature dependency of spectral features that are assigned to certain conformational phases. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.