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Updated: Jul 16, 2026

Probing the Structure and Dynamics of Interfacial Water with Scanning Tunneling Microscopy and Spectroscopy
Published on: May 27, 2018
Ultrafast vibrational energy transfer between surface and bulk water at the air-water interface
Marc Smits1, Avishek Ghosh, Martin Sterrer
1FOM Institute for Atomic and Molecular Physics, Kruislaan 407, 1098 SJ, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Abstract:
We report a femtosecond time-resolved study of water at the neat water-air interface. The O-H stretch vibrational lifetime of hydrogen-bonded interfacial water is measured using surface-specific 4th-order nonlinear optical spectroscopy with femtosecond infrared pulses. The vibrational lifetime in the frequency range of 3200 to 3500 cm(-1) is found to closely resemble that of bulk water, indicating ultrafast exchange of vibrational energy between surface water molecules and those in the bulk.
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