Investigation of the Impact of Terahertz Electromagnetic Radiation on Microbial Cell Viability
The effect of pulsed terahertz radiation at 66 μm wavelength, pulse duration, 100 ns and pulse energy, 200 mJ on a suspension of microbial cells was investigated. It has been established that the effect of terahertz radiation leads to cell death at a total energy value of ~ 6 J. Since the temperature of the cell suspension after radiation remained almost unchanged, it implies that pulsed terahertz radiation exhibits a non-thermal effect. Seed inoculation technique, electron microscopy, electroacoustic analysis and spectral analysis were used in order to verify the results. The results obtained open prospects for governing the viability of bacterial cells using terahertz radiation with certain parameters.