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Vibrational Spectroscopy of Biological Interfaces

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Many of the most interesting and important phenomena occur at interfaces, including heterogeneous catalysis, electron transport, and scattering at semiconductor-metal or -dielectric interfaces; molecular binding and transport at cell membranes; and nanoscale dynamics at polymer interfaces. We have developed a novel approach to the nonlinear optical technique of vibrationally resonant sum frequency spectroscopy (VR-SFS) to study structure and dynamics at these interfaces. Forbidden in isotropic bulk media (e.g., liquids, gases, and solids such as silicon), VR-SFS is uniquely sensitive to interfaces. Our approach uses ultrafast (<50 femtosecond) lasers to generate infrared (IR) pulses that are spectrally very broad, enabling us to obtain the entire VR-SFS spectrum of a sample in a single laser pulse with ultrafast time resolution.

We are currently studying such problems as:

(1) structure and assembly kinetics of biomimetic supported membranes from solution,
(2) orientation and kinetics of the membrane enzymes and polypeptides,
(3) structure and kinetics of polymer motion at polymer-polymer interfaces,
(4) structure and hybridization kinetics of DNA probes and targets immobilized on surfaces, and
(5) structure of peptide signaling sequences important for tissue engineering.

In a new class of experiments, we are developing ultraviolet-IR doubly-resonant SFS to enhance our sensitivity in measuring the structure and dynamics of surface-immobilized membrane proteins and enzymes important for drug design, biomaterials, and biosensors. This interdisciplinary research uses many different techniques of interface preparation and characterization, and is done in collaboration with scientists in several NIST Divisions and from the National Institutes of Health.

Resources:
We have two Ti:sapphire based kilohertz optical parametric amplifier (OPA) systems. One has a single OPA generating light tunable from 1.1 µm to 13 µm in the infrared. The other has two synchronous OPA's, one tunable from 1.1 µm to 20 µm and the other tunable from 280 nm to 2700 nm. There are several spectrometers and scientific grade CCD detectors; wetcells for study of biological interfaces and electrochemistry.

References:
Obtaining publications
Dustin Levy and Kimberly A. Briggman "Cholesterol/Phospholipid Interactions in Hybrid Bilayer Membranes," (Preprint 158 kB)PDF Langmuir, 23, 7155 (2007).

Neil A. Anderson, Lee J. Richter, John C. Stephenson, and Kimberly A. Briggman" Characterization and Control of Lipid Layer Fluidity in Hybrid Bilayer Membranes," (Preprint 158 kB)PDF Journal of the American Chemical Society, 129, 2094 (2007).

Neil A. Anderson, Lee J. Richter, John C. Stephenson, and Kimberly A. Briggman " Determination of Lipid Phase Transition Temperatures in Hybrid Bilayer Membranes," (Preprint 158 kB)PDF Langmuir, 22, 8333 (2006).

Kimberly A. Briggman, Lee J. Richter, and John C. Stephenson " Imaging and Autocorrelation of Ultrafast Infrared Laser Pulses in the 3-11 Micrometer Range Using Silicon CCD Cameras and Photodiodes," (Preprint 70KB) PDF Opt. Lett. 26, 238 (2001).

Teresa Petralli-Mallow, Kimberly A. Briggman, Lee J. Richter, John C. Stephenson, and Anne L. Plant, "Nonlinear optics as a detection scheme for biomimeticsensors: SFG spectroscopy of hybrid bilayer membrane formation," (Preprint 102KB) PDF Proc. SPIE, 3858, 25 (1999).
For technical information or questions, contact:
Kimberly Briggman
Phone: (301) 975-2358
Fax: (301) 975-6991
Email: kbriggma@nist.gov

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Online: September 1997   -   Last updated: February 2008