Terahertz Characteristics of Liquid D(2)O in H(2)O (abstract)

D(2)O used in nuclear power generation is very slightly different from H(2)O. Deuterium (D) is the isotope of hydrogen (H) and has one more neutron than H. D(2)O is heaver than H(2)O by about 11% and its melting and boiling points are 3.81 C and 101.42 deg C, respectively. Moreover, Dv is toxic. It is harmful for human body if it replaces more than approximately 25-50% of a human's body water. So, knowledge of the properties of D(2)O included in H(2)O is necessary. The confinement energy and hydrogen bonding energy of large molecules are in the terahertz frequency region (2-10 THz, 3-66 cm(-1)). Particularly, the polar molecules such as H(2)O and D(2)O react to this frequency region well because the time of hydrogen relaxation motion is subpicosecond. Terahertz time-domain spectroscopy (THz-TDS) using terahertz pulses has been used in the study of ultrafast dynamics of hydrogen bonds in biomolecules and carriers in semiconductors. We obtained the refractive index and power absorption of H(2)O and D(2)O at room temperature. The results show that the refractive index and power absorption of H(2)O are larger than for D(2)O.