Hydration dynamics in Deoxyribonucleic acid using an extended MHz-THz spectroscopy

Dynamics of water molecules within hydration shells of deoxyribonucleic acid were studied by employing a high precision and an extended megahertz to terahertz frequency-domain spectroscopy. Three additional relaxation times longer that bulk water relaxation time of 8.27 ps were observed by analyzing dielectric spectrum using the Debye model. Total 64 ± 8 water molecules per base pair were observed to be influenced kinetically by the presence of DNA in the aqueous solution.