Quantitative measurement and interpretation of optical second harmonic generation from molecular interfaces

The interfacial structure of super-concentration LiNO3 aqueous electrolyte studied by second harmonic generation

The interfacial structure of a super-concentration LiNO₃ aqueous electrolyte was studied using non-resonant second harmonic generation (SHG) and heterodyne-detected SHG spectra. First, we investigated the electric double layer structure at the air/LiNO₃ interface. As the concentration of LiNO₃ increased, the SHG intensity first increased and then remained unchanged, while the SHG phase changed by about 5°. These results reveal that there was only a small amount of NO₃ ^- at the interface. The increase of the SHG intensity resulted from the thickening of the interfacial water molecular layer. In addition, we studied the broadening mechanism of the electrochemical stability window (ESW) for the super-concentrated LiNO₃ aqueous electrolyte. During cyclic voltammetry scanning, the potential-dependent SHG curves of the Pt/LiNO₃ interface verify that at the cathodic end of the ESW, as the concentration of LiNO₃ increased, the orientation angle θ of Pt-H changed less and the number density N_s of Pt-H gradually decreased, which indicates the decrease of the number of adsorbed H atoms on the Pt electrode surface. Therefore, the decrease of the number of free water molecules on the Pt electrode surface resulted in an expanded ESW.

One-Fold Anisotropy of Silver Chiral Nanoparticles Studied by Second-Harmonic Generation

Second-harmonic generation (SHG) integrated with diverse nonlinear optical activity characterization has high sensitivity to detect the symmetry of materials at an interface, but the study is in its infancy. Here, we employ SHG with linear dichroism (or SHG-LD) to study the chiroptical origin of silver (Ag) chiral nanoparticles (CNPs) deposited by glancing angle deposition (GLAD). It is found that Ag CNPs show the chiroptical activity ascribed to not only the structural chirality (i.e., atomically chiral lattices) but also one-fold anisotropy at an interface due to the substrate rotation during GLAD. Therefore, the SHG-LD shows great potential to provide valuable complementary information to study the chiroptical properties of chiral metamaterials.

Unique supramolecular assembly through Langmuir - Blodgett (LB) technique

The Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) technique is a way of making supra-molecular assembly in ultrathin films with a controlled layered structure and crystal parameter, which have many envisioned technological applications for optical and molecular electronic devices as well as signal processing and transformation. Probably LB technique is the best method to manipulate materials at molecular level and provides a scope to realize the molecular electronics in reality. In this review article, we have discussed about the general introduction of LB technique and recent development on LB and related system including (i) LB methodology, (ii) characterizations of LB films, (iii) LB films and molecular electronics, (iv) historical review of LB films, (v) research and applications including fundamental research and application towards devices.

Non-parabolic potential dependence of optical second harmonic generation from the Si(111) electrode/electrolyte interface

We performed potential dependent second harmonic generation (SHG) measurements on the Si(111) electrolyte interface at different azimuthal angles and for different polarization combinations.

Molecular structure and adsorption of dimethyl sulfoxide at the air/aqueous solution interface probed by non-resonant second harmonic generation

In this study, non-resonant second harmonic generation (SHG) was used to investigate the molecular structure and adsorption of DMSO at the air/neat DMSO liquid and air/DMSO aqueous solution interfaces.

Conformational Changes of a Surface-Tethered Polymer during Radical Growth Probed with Second-Harmonic Generation

The surface-induced polymerization of a chromophore-functionalized monomer was probed in situ for the first time using a nonlinear optical technique, second-harmonic generation. During the first hours of the polymerization reaction, dramatic changes in the tilt angle of the chromophore-functionalized side groups were observed. Following evaluation of the nonlinear optical data with those obtained from atomic force microscopy and ultraviolet-visible, we conclude that second-harmonic generation efficiently probes the polymerization reaction and the conformational changes of the surface-grafted polymer. With polymerization time, the conformation of the surface-tethered polymer changes from a conformation with the polymer backbone and its side groups flat on the surface, i.e., a "pancake" conformation, to a conformation where the polymer backbone is stretched away combined with tilted side groups or an enlarged tilt angle distribution, i.e., a "brush-type" conformation.

Protein Conformational Changes Are Detected and Resolved Site Specifically by Second-Harmonic Generation

We present here a straightforward, broadly applicable technique for real-time detection and measurement of protein conformational changes in solution. This method is based on tethering proteins labeled with a second-harmonic generation (SHG) active dye to supported lipid bilayers. We demonstrate our method by measuring the conformational changes that occur upon ligand binding with three well-characterized proteins labeled at lysine residues: calmodulin (CaM), maltose-binding protein (MBP), and dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR). We also create a single-site cysteine mutant of DHFR engineered within the Met20 catalytic loop region and study the protein’s structural motion at this site. Using published x-ray crystal structures, we show that the changes in the SHG signals upon ligand binding are the result of structural motions that occur at the labeled sites between the apo and ligand-bound forms of the proteins, which are easily distinguished from each other. In addition, we demonstrate that different magnitudes of the SHG signal changes are due to different and specific ligand-induced conformational changes. Taken together, these data illustrate the potential of the SHG approach for detecting and measuring protein conformational changes for a wide range of biological applications.

The surface roughness, but not the water molecular orientation varies with temperature at the water-air interface

We examine the temperature dependence of the interfacial molecular structure at the water-air interface by combining experimental and simulated sum-frequency generation (SFG) spectroscopy. The experimental SFG spectra of the OH-stretching mode show a decrease in the amplitude at ∼3300 cm(-1) with increasing temperature, while the 3700 cm(-1) 'free OH' SFG feature is insensitive to temperature changes. The simulated spectra are in excellent agreement with experiment. A comparison between interfacial SFG spectra and bulk infrared/Raman spectra reveals that the variation of the SFG signal due to the temperature change is not caused by a temperature-dependent OH bond orientation of the interfacial water molecules, but can be fully accounted for by the temperature dependence of the optical response of water. These results indicate that while the thickness of the interfacial region varies with temperature, the molecular organization of interfacial water at the water-air interface is surprisingly insensitive to temperature changes.

A surface second harmonic generation investigation of volatile organic compound adsorption on a liquid mercury surface

Adsorption of benzene and toluene vapor on a liquid mercury surface, as probed by SHG spectroscopy, exhibit a non-Langmuirian behavior with lateral interaction being a major component of the adsorption mechanism.

Probing surface and interface structure using optics

Optical techniques for probing surface and interface structure are introduced and recent developments in the field are discussed. These techniques offer significant advantages over conventional surface probes: all pressure ranges of gas-condensed matter interfaces are accessible and liquid-liquid, liquid-solid and solid-solid interfaces can be probed, due to the large penetration depth of the optical radiation. Sensitivity and discrimination from the bulk are the two challenges facing optical techniques in probing surface and interface structure. Where instrumental improvements have resulted in enhanced sensitivity, conventional optical techniques can be used to characterize heterogeneous adsorbed layers on a substrate, often with sub-monolayer resolution. Nanoscale lateral resolution is possible using scanning near-field optics. A separate class of techniques, which includes reflection anisotropy spectroscopy, and nonlinear optical probes such as second-harmonic and sum-frequency generation, uses the difference in symmetry between the bulk and the surface or interface to suppress the bulk contribution. A perspective is presented of likely future developments in this rapidly expanding field.

Invited review article: Imaging techniques for harmonic and multiphoton absorption fluorescence microscopy

We review the current state of multiphoton microscopy. In particular, the requirements and limitations associated with high-speed multiphoton imaging are considered. A description of the different scanning technologies such as line scan, multifoci approaches, multidepth microscopy, and novel detection techniques is given. The main nonlinear optical contrast mechanisms employed in microscopy are reviewed, namely, multiphoton excitation fluorescence, second harmonic generation, and third harmonic generation. Techniques for optimizing these nonlinear mechanisms through a careful measurement of the spatial and temporal characteristics of the focal volume are discussed, and a brief summary of photobleaching effects is provided. Finally, we consider three new applications of multiphoton microscopy: nonlinear imaging in microfluidics as applied to chemical analysis and the use of two-photon absorption and self-phase modulation as contrast mechanisms applied to imaging problems in the medical sciences.

Environment-induced surface dynamics of a biomimetic ionomer studied using in situ second harmonic generation

The environmental-induced surface dynamics of the biomimetic phosphoryl choline (PC)-functionalized poly(trimethylene carbonate) ionomer has been studied and compared to its unfunctionalized counterpart using in situ second harmonic generation measurements. Whereas the nonpolar liquid n-hexane did not induce any surface dynamic processes in the ionomer under study, the presence of water initiated a Debye-type dynamic reaction at the surface of the PC ionomer, which had no equivalent in the unfunctionalized material. This first-order reaction was attributed to a surface enrichment process of the functionalized ionomer in the hydrophilic environment involving movement of the PC endgroups from aggregates in the bulk to the surface. The time constant of the process was found to be about 6 min, and the corresponding activation energy was 0.4 eV. The dehydration process of the PC-functionalized ionomer in nitrogen gas atmosphere could be described by two time constants, one slightly below 1 min and the other one just above 13 min. The results presented in this work show that SHG measurements are well suited for the study of polymer surface restructuring dynamics in response to environmental changes. Such information is very important for the successful design and implementation of biomimetic polymers intended for biomedical applications.

A study on orientation and absorption spectrum of interfacial molecules by using continuum model

In this work, a numerical procedure based on the continuum model is developed and applied to the solvation energy for ground state and the spectral shift against the position and the orientation of the interfacial molecule. The interface is described as a sharp boundary separating two bulk media. The polarizable continuum model (PCM) allows us to account for both electrostatic and nonelectrostatic solute-solvent interactions when we calculate the solvation energy. In this work we extend PCM to the interfacial system and the information about the position and orientation of the interfacial molecule can be obtained. Based on the developed expression of the electrostatic free energy of a nonequilibrium state, the numerical procedure has been implemented and used to deal with a series of test molecules. The time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) associated with PCM is used for the electron structure and the spectroscopy calculations of the test molecules in homogeneous solvents. With the charge distribution of the ground and excited states, the position- and orientation-dependencies of the solvation energy and the spectrum have been investigated for the interfacial systems, taking the electrostatic interaction, the cavitation energy, and the dispersion-repulsion interaction into account. The cavitation energy is paid particular attention, since the interface portion cut off by the occupation of the interfacial molecule contributes an extra part to the stabilization for the interfacial system. The embedding depth, the favorable orientational angle, and the spectral shift for the interfacial molecule have been investigated in detail. From the solvation energy calculations, an explanation has been given on why the interfacial molecule, even if symmetrical in structure, tends to take a tilting manner, rather than perpendicular to the interface.