Transient Proton Transfer of Base Pair Hydrogen Bonds Induced by Intense Terahertz Radiation

Local oriented intense electric fields play a vital role in biochemical reactions such as enzyme catalysis. Many researchers have gradually applied external oriented electric fields to control specific chemical reactions. The rapidly developing intense field terahertz technology can provide a strong enough oriented electric field with specific polarization direction on sub-picosecond time scale, which matches the time scale and intensity requirements of affecting specific ultrafast chemical reactions. Inspired by this, this paper theoretically studied the full quantum model of the proton transfer process in DNA base pair hydrogen bonds induced by the intense terahertz radiation (ITR) with sub-picosecond-oriented electric field through the simulation based on density functional theory (DFT) and Schrodinger equation. The result shows that the ITR with electric fields intensity up to 10 GV/m in a specific polarization direction can precisely control the proton transfer process in the base pair hydrogen bonds. Based on flexible optical methods, the ITR is expected to go beyond the traditional techniques for applying strong electric fields to chemical systems through solid electrodes, and become a catalyst for controlling chemical reactions or a scalpel to manipulate molecular structure.