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The second order nonlinear optical processes of second harmonic generation and sum frequency generation are powerful new probes of surfaces. They possess unusual surface sensitivity due to the symmetry properties of the nonlinear susceptibility. In particular, infrared-visible sum frequency generation (SFG) can obtain the vibrational spectrum of sub-monolayer coverages of molecules. In this thesis, we explore the unique information that can be obtained from SFG. We take advantage of the sensitivity of SFG to the conformation of alkane chains to study the interaction between adsorbed liquid crystal molecules and surfactant treated surfaces. The sign of the SFG susceptibility depends on the sign of the molecular polarizability and the orientation, up or down, of the molecule. We experimentally determine the sign of the susceptibility and use it to determine the absolute orientation to obtain the sign of the molecular polarizability and show that this quantity contains important information about the dynamics of molecular charge distributions. Finally, we study the vibrational spectra and the molecular orientation at the pure liquid/vapor interface of methanol and water and present the most detailed evidence yet obtained for the structure of the pure water surface. 32 refs., 4 figs., 2 tabs.

Nonlinear spectroscopic studies of interfacial molecular ordering