Microwave resonant absorption of viruses through dipolar coupling with confined acoustic vibrations

Abstract

In this letter, with an electric double layer on the surface of spherical viruses, we confirm that one of the microwave resonant absorption (MRA) mechanisms of viruses is through dipolar coupling with confined acoustic vibrations. By treating spherical virions as free homogeneous nanoparticles, we found that the MRA frequencies agree well with that of l=1 dipolar modes predicted by the elastic continuum theory. The magnitude of MRA was also found to change with the amount of adsorbed charges on the surface of virions. Our results provide a method to observe three-dimensionally confined acoustic vibrations in biological systems.