(Sub)picosecond processes in DNA and RNA constituents: a Raman spectroscopic assessment

In this work, Raman total half bandwidths and the corresponding global relaxation times of seven nucleic acid constituents (adenosine, guanosine hydrate, cytidine, thymidine, uridine, adenosine 5′-monophosphate disodium salt and 2′-deoxyadenosine-5′-monophosphate) have been identified, respectively. In our study, we have established that the full widths at half-maximum for the Raman bands of the investigated compounds are typically in the wavenumber range from 9 to 27 cm−1. Moreover, the molecular relaxation processes studied in this work are characterized by global relaxation times with values smaller than 1.18 ps and larger than 0.39 ps. Here, we can suppose that the dominant relaxation mechanism is the vibrational one.