| AVS 60th International Symposium and Exhibition | |
| Biomembranes and Emerging Tools in Bioscience Plenary Session | Sunday Sessions |
| Session BP+AS-SuA |
| Session: | Biomembranes and Emerging Tools in Bioscience Plenary Session |
| Presenter: | Y.R. Shen, University of California, Berkeley |
| Correspondent: | Click to Email |
Infrared-visible sum-frequency generation has become a most powerful and versatile spectroscopic tool for surface and interface studies in recent years. It is based on the simple idea that surface and bulk of a material generally have different symmetries. The technique has many advantages over other probes: it is highly surface-specific, has high spatial, temporal and spectral resolution, is capable of remote sensing and probing surfaces in hostile environment, and most importantly, can be applied to any interfaces assessable by light. Consequently, it has opened many new opportunities for investigation of surface and interface properties and processes in various disciplines.
In this talk, we shall give a brief review on the recent development of sum-frequency vibrational spectroscopy. We shall describe how the technique can be used to probe surface and interface structures of neat materials from their surface vibrational spectra. Water interfaces will be presented as examples. Future prospects will be discussed.