Vibrational relaxation and line widths in liquids dephasing by intermolecular forces

Vibrational nano-spectroscopic imaging correlating structure with intermolecular coupling and dynamics

Molecular self-assembly, the function of biomembranes and the performance of organic solar cells rely on nanoscale molecular interactions. Understanding and control of such materials have been impeded by difficulties in imaging their properties with the desired nanometre spatial resolution, attomolar sensitivity and intermolecular spectroscopic specificity. Here we implement vibrational scattering-scanning near-field optical microscopy with high spectral precision to investigate the structure–function relationship in nano-phase separated block copolymers. A vibrational resonance is used as a sensitive reporter of the local chemical environment and we image, with few nanometre spatial resolution and 0.2 cm⁻¹ spectral precision, solvatochromic Stark shifts and line broadening correlated with molecular-scale morphologies. We discriminate local variations in electric fields between nano-domains with quantitative agreement with dielectric continuum models. This ability to directly resolve nanoscale morphology and associated intermolecular interactions can form a basis for the systematic control of functionality in multicomponent soft matter systems.

Quantifying intermolecular coupling and local morphology is important to understand soft matter systems. Pollard et al. show how multispectral vibrational near-field optical microscopy can be used to image molecular-scale morphology and intermolecular interactions with nanometre spatial resolution.

Evidence for negative cross correlations in vibrational dephasing in liquids: isotropic raman-line shift and width phenomena in isotopic mixtures of N2 and O2

To experimentally confirm the hypothesis of negative cross terms between different dephasing mechanisms, potentially leading to a broadening of the isotropic Raman line upon isotopic dilution, we present a detailed study on the concentration dependencies of all of the line shifts and widths in the four isotopic mixtures of type (15N14N)(x)-(14N2)(1-x), (15N2)(x)-(14N2)(1-x), (15N2)(x)-(15N14N)(1-x), and (16O2)(x)-(18O2)(1-x) near the normal boiling point of nitrogen at T = 77.35 K. A quite disparate behavior of the nitrogen oscillators compared to the oxygen oscillators was observed in respect to a change of their isotopic baths.