Consistency in the Sum Frequency Generation Intensity and Phase Vibrational Spectra of the Air/Neat Water Interface

Environmental chemistry at vapor/water interfaces: insights from vibrational sum frequency generation spectroscopy

The chemistry that occurs at surfaces has been an intense area of study for many years owing to its complexity and importance in describing a wide range of physical phenomena. The vapor/water interface is particularly interesting from an environmental chemistry perspective as this surface plays host to a wide range of chemistries that influence atmospheric and geochemical interactions. The application of vibrational sum frequency generation (VSFG), an inherently surface-specific, even-order nonlinear optical spectroscopy, enables the direct interrogation of various vapor/aqueous interfaces to elucidate the behavior and reaction of chemical species within the surface regime. In this review we discuss the application of VSFG to the study of a variety of atmospherically important systems at the vapor/aqueous interface. Chemical systems presented include inorganic ionic solutions prevalent in aqueous marine aerosols, small molecular solutes, and long-chain fatty acids relevant to fat-coated aerosols. The ability of VSFG to probe both the organization and reactions that may occur for these systems is highlighted. A future perspective toward the application of VSFG to the study of environmental interfaces is also provided.

Comparative study of direct and phase-specific vibrational sum-frequency generation spectroscopy: advantages and limitations

As a surface-specific technique, vibrational sum-frequency generation (SFG) is used in a wide range of applications where soft matter or solid interfaces are to be probed on a molecular level through their vibrational modes. In recent years, phase-specific sum-frequency generation (PS-SFG, also known as heterodyne-detected SFG) spectroscopy has been increasingly replacing its predecessor (direct SFG, also known as homodyne SFG) as the experimental technique of choice for characterizing interfacial structure. The technique enables phase sensitive measurements, allowing for the determination of the real and imaginary parts of the interfacial vibrational response function and thereby the unambiguous identification of molecular orientation. This phase-sensitivity requires, however, a complete understanding of the complex optical properties of the sample and of their effect on the signal. These optical properties significantly influence the raw spectral data from which the real and imaginary parts of the second-order susceptibility are retrieved. We show that it is essential to correct the data appropriately to infer the true molecular response. The current study presents a detailed description of the physical contributions to the phase-resolved spectrum, allowing a direct comparison between the phase-resolved spectrum and that obtained using the well-understood direct detection method in a step-by-step data analysis process. In addition to phase sensitivity, PS-SFG has been shown to increase the sensitivity compared to traditional (direct) SFG spectroscopy. We present a quantitative comparison between theoretical limits of the signal-to-noise ratio of both techniques, which shows that for many systems the signal-to-noise ratio is very similar for direct- and phase-specific SFG signals.