Terahertz vibrations in compressed solids and biological materials

Terahertz vibrations at the nanoscale could provide a common basis to study mechanical instabilities both in crystalline solids and biological materials. As a matter of fact, dynamic instabilities induced in the crystal lattices of solids during brittle fracture, as well as protein folding and unfolding might produce THz resonant vibrations. By using the scattered light spectrum analysis, the authors are performing experimental studies to obtain information about the molecular interactions in crystalline solids and protein structures. These analyses can be useful to understand which kind of excitation should be applied to produce resonant vibrations in the field of THz. Simplified numerical models are also being implemented to interpret the variations in the crystal lattices natural frequencies of compressed solids, and to simulate buckling/snap-through nano-instabilities of specific proteins.