Liquid second harmonic generation

Rasing Th, Shen Y R, Kim M W, Valint P Jr and Bock J 1985 Orientation of surfactant molecules at a liquid-air interface measured by optical second-harmonic generation Phys. Rev. A 31 537-9... 

Unlike linear optical effects such as absorption, reflection, and scattering, second order non-linear optical effects are inherently specific for surfaces and interfaces. These effects, namely second harmonic generation (SHG) and sum frequency generation (SFG), are dipole-forbidden in the bulk of centrosymmetric media. In the investigation of isotropic phases such as liquids, gases, and amorphous solids, in particular, signals arise exclusively from the surface or interface region, where the symmetry is disrupted. Non-linear optics are applicable in-situ without the need for a vacuum, and the time response is rapid. 

Hirose, Y, Yui, H. and Sawada, T. (2005) Second harmonic generation-based coherent vibrational spectroscopy for a liquid interface under the nonresonant pump condition. J. Phys. Chem. B, 109, 13063-13066. 

Liquid Membrane Ion-Selective Electrodes Response Mechanisms Studied by Optical Second Harmonic Generation and Photoswitchable lonophores as a Molecular Probe... 

As discussed in Section II.A, Eisenthal and coworkers have studied the related problem of isomerization at liquid-solid interfaces. They used time-resolved second harmonic generation to investigate the barrierless photoisomerization of malachite green at the silica-aqueous interface using femtosecond time-resolved second harmonic generation [26]. They found that the photoisomerization reaction proceeded but was an order of magnitude slower at the water-silica interface than in bulk solution. 

Recently, we [13,14] evidenced by ATR-IR spectroscopy that the membrane potential of ionophore-incorporated, PVC-based liquid membranes is governed by permselective transport of primary cations into the ATR-active layer of the membrane surface. More recently, we [14 16] observed optical second harmonic generation (SHG) for ionophore-incorporated PVC-based liquid membranes, and confirmed that the membrane potential is primarily governed by the SHG active, oriented complexed cations at the... 

Optical second harmonic generation (SHG), which is the conversion of two photons of frequency u to a single photon of frequency 2co, is known to be an inherently surface-sensitive technique, because it requires a noncentrosymmetrical medium. At the interface between two centrosymmetrical media, such as the interface between two liquids, only the molecules which participate in the asymmetry of the interface will contribute to the SHG [18]. SHG has been used as an in-situ probe of chemisorption, molecular orientation, and... 

To further corroborate these potentiometric results, we again used optical second harmonic generation (SHG). The SHG measurement system was essentially the same as used in the study described in Section II, except the laser beam was first reflected by a mirror and then totally reflected by the liquid-liquid interface. 

The value of 3 and its dispersion for a molecule, or polymer chain, can be experimentally determined by DC induced second harmonic generation (DCSHG) measurements of liquid solutions -1 2). The experimental arrangement requiring an applied DC field E° to remove the natural center of inversion symmetry of the solution is described in Figure 4. The second harmonic polarization of the solution is expressed as... 

Nonlinear optical spectroscopies such as second harmonic generation (SHG) and sum frequency generation (SFG) are finding increasing use in probing species at interfaces (e.g., Eisenthal, 1996). For example, SHG was used by Donaldson et al. (1995) to detect a surface-bound S02 species, and SFG has been applied to elucidate the structure of dimethyl sulfoxide at liquid interfaces (Allen et al., 1999). These techiques are... 

FLC phases in the surface stabilized geometry possess a single C2 axis of symmetry, and therefore polar order and non-zero x<2) in the simple electronic dipolar model. Thus, it is not surprising that experiments aimed at measuring this property were first reported shortly after the Clark-Lagerwall invention. Early studies (14-15) described second harmonic generation in (S)-2-Methylbutyl 4-(4-decyloxybenzylideneamino)cin-namate, the first ferroelectric liquid crystal, also known as DOBAMBC (1). 

Liquid crystals are interesting supramolecular systems which can show second harmonic generation when they are aligned appropriately. Ferroelectric LCs [250] as well as bent-core molecules have been used to this purpose, and show reasonable second harmonic generation [251]. These materials combine non-linear optical effects with simple processing procedures on account of their liquid crystalline flow characteristics and the possibility of organising them with electric and magnetic fields. 

Self-assembly is essentially chemical fabrication. Like macroscale fabrication techniques, self-assembly allows a great deal of design flexibility in that it affords the opportunity to prepare materials with custom shapes or morphologies. The advantages of self-assembly include an increased level of architecture control and access to types of functionality unobtainable by most other types of liquid-phase techniques. For example, it has been demonstrated that materials with nonlinear optical properties (e.g., second harmonic generation), which require noncen-trosymmetric structures, can be self-assembled from achiral molecules. 

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