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Updated: May 23, 2026

Scattering And Absorption of Light in Planetary Regoliths
Published on: July 1, 2019
Comparison of scattering and reflection SFG: a question of phase-matching
Hilton B de Aguiar1, Rüdiger Scheu, Kailash C Jena
1Laboratory for fundamental BioPhotonics (LBP), Institute of Bio-engineering (IBI), School of Engineering (STI), École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland. sylvie.roke@epfl.ch.
Abstract:
We present a comparison between sum frequency scattering (SFS) and reflection mode sum frequency generation (R-SFG). We have used scattering theory to describe both scattering experiments as well as reflection mode experiments. The interfacial vibrational spectrum of nanoscopic oil droplets dispersed in water was probed with SFS as well as with R-SFG. Spectra recorded in phase-matched R-SFG mode and spectra recorded with SFS from the same sample are different, which shows that different interfaces are measured. Scattering spectra at different scattering angles agree with nonlinear light scattering theory. We further present experiments with polymer films aimed at quantifying the comparative strength of R-SFG and SFS experiments.
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