Abstract
Surface-specific second-order nonlinear optical spectroscopies, such as second harmonic generation (SHG) spectroscopy and sum frequency generation (SFG) spectroscopy, have become well-established tools to investigate biological interfaces because of their sensitivity to broken centrosymmetry. In this chapter, the two techniques of SHG and SFG and their applications in biological research are mainly discussed. The application of SHG in biological imaging and measuring the interaction kinetics of small molecules with living cells are introduced. As a vibrational spectroscopy, SFG spectroscopy has been demonstrated to be an ideal technique to probe and characterize the structures and orientations of peptides/proteins at solid/liquid interfaces. A systematic methodology has been developed to determine interfacial orientations of various secondary structures such as the α-helix, β-sheet, and complex protein by analyzing polarized SFG spectra. Except for planar interface, second-harmonic light scattering (SHS) and SFG scattering (SFS) can also be used to characterize the surface/interface of particles such as liposome, bacteria in solution.
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