Communication: Spectroscopic phase and lineshapes in high-resolution broadband sum frequency vibrational spectroscopy: Resolving interfacial inhomogeneities of identical molecular groups

The ability to achieve sub-wavenumber resolution (0.6 cm(-1)) and a large signal-to-noise ratio in high-resolution broadband sum-frequency generation vibrational spectroscopy (HR-BB-SFG-VS) allows for the detailed SFG spectral lineshapes to be used in the unambiguous determination of fine spectral features. Changes in the structural spectroscopic phase in SFG-VS as a function of beam polarization and experimental geometry proved to be instrumental in the identification of an unexpected 2.78 +/- 0.07 cm(-1) spectral splitting for the two methyl groups at the vapor/dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO, (CH3)(2)SO) liquid interface as well as in the determination of their orientational angles. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi: 10.1063/1.3675629]