Program:

Tuesday, May 16th:

9:00 - Introductions, opening remarks.
9:15 - Presentation/Discussion of linear optics in oriented systems (absorption, scattering, reflection)
10:15 - Break up into groups and start working on Questions #1.
1:00 - Meet back in WTHR 201 for Participant Presentations:

Nathan Begue (Purdue) “Novel detection method for two-photon absorption through intensity modulation”

Grace Yin (NW) “Tailor-made surfaces and their reactivities studied by vibrational sum frequency generation: From olefins to DNA”

Alexei Lagoutchev (U Illinois) “Registering shock waves with SFG”

Man Xu (Ohio) “Ethylenediamine at air/liquid and air/silica interfaces: Protonation versus hydrogen bonding investigated by sum frequency generation spectroscopy”

1:45 - Presentation/Discussion of quantum descriptions of time- and frequency-dependent nonlinear polarizabilities
2:30 - Break up into groups and start working on Questions #2.

Wednesday, May 17th:

9:00 - Presentation/Discussion of different visual representations of the molecular tensor.
10:00 - Break up into groups and start working on Questions #3.
1:00 - Meet back in WTHR 201 for Participant Presentations:

Michael Musorrafiti (NW) “Interfacial acidities, charge densities potentials, and energies of carboxylic acid-functionalized silica/water interfaces determined by second harmonic generation”

Arthur McClelland (U Mich) “Preliminary results from a co-linear SFG imaging system”

Faith Boman (NW) “Second harmonic generation studies of surface-bound DNA”

Andy Boughton (U Mich) “Studying peptide behavior at polymer interfaces”

Haifeng Wang (Purdue) “Simultaneous coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering and sum-frequency imaging of spinal cord tissue”

1:45 - Presentation/Discussion of the software package NLOPredict for visualization and data analysis.
2:30 - Break up into groups and start working on Questions #4.

Thursday, May 18th:

9:00 - Presentation/Discussion of quantum chemical calculations for tensors describing Raman, multi-photon absorption, vibrational SFG, electronic SHG, CARS, four-wave mixing, etc.
10:00 - Break up into groups and start working on Questions #5.
1:00 - Meet back in WTHR 201 for Participant Presentations:

Cory Kristalyn (U Mich)”Determination of chemically immobilized protein structure by SFG”

Patrick Hayes (NW) “Environmentally-Relevant Metal Binding to Catechol-Functionalized Surfaces Studied by Second-Harmonic Generation”

Anne DeSimone (U Mich) “Polymer-silane interfaces probed by sum frequency generation vibrational spectroscopy”

Gang Ma (Ohio) “Intermolecular interactions in lung surfactant: A molecular view”

1:45 - Presentation/Discussion of orientational averages connecting the molecular frame to the macroscopic frame.
2:30 - Break up into groups and start working on Questions #6.

Friday, May 19th:

9:00 - Presentation/Discussion of instrumental methods for polarization analysis.
10:00 - Break up into groups and start working on Questions #7.
1:00 - Meet back in WTHR 201 for Participant Presentations:

Victoria Hall (Purdue) “Fast Nonlinear Optical Ellipsometry”

Kandice Harper (Ohio) “Molecular conformations of fatty acid monolayers at the air/water interface”

Julianne Gibbs Davis (NW) “SHG of chromate interactions with peptides-linked acid functionalized surfaces”

Zhi Jiang (Purdue) “Spectral line-by-line pulse shaping for polarization control”

1:45 - Presentation/Discussion of Fresnel factors and geometric projection terms for appropriate treatment of the interfacial optics.
2:30 - Break up into groups and start working on Questions #8 (which we will discuss at a miniature golf course in town).


Speakers:

Faith Boman, Northwestern University. I use the SHG Chi(3) technique to probe surface-bound DNA short strands. This allows me to calculate surface charge densities and determine thermodynamic parameters like interfacial potential and change in interfacial free energy density. I have also used plane- polarized light to measure the chiral response of DNA.

Nathan Begue, Purdue University. Measuring the nonlinear index of refraction and two-photon absorption by a novel detection of the second harmonic of high frequency intensity modulation.

Andy Boughton, University of Michigan. I study the adsorption of small (antimicrobial) peptides to polymer surfaces via a combination of experimental (SFG) and computational (Molecular Dynamics) methods. Aspects studied include ordering of water molecules at the interface and effect of an electric field on helix orientation; eventually, we'd also like to examine larger systems to see the effect of peptides aggregating at the interface on spectra.

Anne DeSimone, University of Michigan. I will be studying buried polymer-cured silicone elastomer interfaces using SFG. I will be studying the effects of different curing agents, and different cure times on various polymer-silicone elastomer systems.

Julianne Gibbs, Northwestern University. I am studying the thermodynamics of chromate binding to functionalized fused quartz/water interfaces as a model for interfaces found in groundwater systems. By monitoring resonantly enhance SHG signal of chromate binding to peptide-linked acids and peptide-linked alpha-hydroxy acid-functionalized surfaces, we have measured binding constants which are much greater for these peptide-linked surfaces (30 xs greater) than for surfaces that are not peptide-linked. This increase in binding constant suggests that, depending on the organic composition of the soil, chromate could have a much different mobility, which is important to include in environmental models for understanding pollutant transport. Additionally, the alpha-hydroxy acid surface has a stereogenic center that should render the surface chiral. We are interested to see if this chirality is observed in the resonantly enhanced SHG signal from chromate binding to this chiral interface.

Victoria Hall, Purdue University. Using fast non-linear optical ellipsometry to determine chiral response.

Patrick Hayes, Northwestern University. I plan to study the adsorption of environmentally-relevant metals to catechol-functionalized fused quartz using SHG spectroscopy. Catechol moieties are ubiquitous in nature and present in both siderophores and humic acids. This research will build on previous work in the Geiger Group, which has already studied pollutant-binding to carboxylic acid and methyl-ester functionalized surfaces. Furthermore, the project will be the first study of pollutant binding to a functionalized-surface containing conjugated systems.

Nicholas Ingram, Purdue University.

Zhi Jiang, Purdue University. I am working on ultrafast technology, optical pulse shaping and optical fiber communication. Specifically, I am involved in two projects: (1) optical code division multiple access (O-CDMA) system; (2) spectral line-by-line pulse shaping and its applications in optical fiber communications.

Cory Kristalyn, University of Michigan. Use of SFG to study enzyme structure when chemically immobilized. By using different immobilization methods and targeting different amino acids different orientation should be adopted and an relationship between orientation and immobilization can be gained.

Alexei Lagoutchev, University of Illinois. Measuring real-time processes with sum-frequency generation. Two major directions: 1) Laser-generated shock wave interaction with monolayers in pump- probe configuration (shock - pump, SFG - probe). 2) Monitoring the processes at the surface of electrodes through the layer of electrolyte in real time (hundreds of milliseconds).

Gang Ma, Ohio State University. My current research project is about the interfacial structure and intermolecular interactions of lung surfactant. We want to gain a molecular-level picture for lung surfactant function with the aid of nonlinear optical spectroscopy, such as sum frequency generation spectroscopy. We are particularly interested in the roles of lipid chain conformation, lipid headgroup hydration, interfacial water structure, and protein secondary structure in lung surfactant function.

Arthur McCleland, University of Michigan. My main projects currently are building an SFG imaging system, looking at silanes as an adhesion promoter between epoxy and glass, and studying why pharmaceutical crystals will adopt different crystal structures when grown on different polymer surfaces.

Michael Musorrafiti, Northwestern University. In my research, I am performing thermodynamic studies of pollutant interactions with models for environmental interfaces. Current work focuses on obtaining binding parameters for the agricultural antibiotic morantel citrate binding to methyl ester and carboxylic acid-functionalized fused quartz surfaces by means of resonant second harmonic generation. The goal of this research is to improve existing environmental transport models by explicitly including the dependency of the binding on the surface functionality.

Haifeng Wang, Purdue University. Coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) microscopy has the unique advantage of providing molecular selectivity without any labeling. However, the current CARS imaging setups are complicated and expensive with synchronized Ti:Sapphire lasers or optical parametric oscillators (OPOs), which hinders its usage for general researchers and doctors. My project is to develop a compact, simple and inexpensive CARS imaging system utilizing the method of optical parametric generation. This will help introduce CARS imaging into a wide rage of biological and clinical applications.

Man Xu. The primary goal of my study is to determine the adsorption mechanisms of diamine molecules and divalent metal ions at air/oxide and water/oxide interfaces based on the molecular-scale spectroscopic results. Silica is used as a model mineral oxide. Sum frequency generation spectroscopy is employed as the primary investigational technique to investigate adsorption processes and evaluate possible mechanisms.

Grace Yin, Northwestern. I look at oxidation reactions between ozone and glass slides functionalized with tailor-made olefins, specifically biogenic terpenes and derivatives commonly found in the troposphere. I characterize surface-bound species using broadband SFG. I also use SFG to study glass slides functionalized with DNA single and double strands. Using various polarization combinations, I probe the chirality of the oligonucleotides.