We have a new archive paper wherein we revise the current understanding of the molecular structure at the air-water interface by demonstrating that the molecular twist angle is just as important as the tilt angle in defining the preferential molecular orientation. This is achieved by applying depth-resolved SFG-DFG spectroscopy in combination with MD simulations performed by the group of Roland Netz to probe the H-O-H bending mode and characterise the layer-dependent structural motifs at the interface. You can read more here.

Our recent collaborative work on using SFG microscopy to image CVD-grown hexagonal Boron Nitride (hBN) monolayers was presented at ECONOS 2025 in Meudon, France. It was great to see a wide range of talks and posters and have thrilling discussions with our colleagues in the nonlinear optical spectroscopy community from all across Europe.

Our recent paper using azimuthal-scanning phase-resolved SFG microscopy to investigate the effect of phosphatidylserine (PS) lipid exposure on the membrane packing structure was presented at the recent Faraday Discussion on ‘Structural and Functional Asymmetry of Plasma Membranes’. Overall there were many exciting papers presented at the conference and we were pleased to engage in deep discussions with our colleagues on our work. Thanks to the organisers for putting on an excellent event! You can find the link to our paper here.

We have a new archive paper based on our recent work on imaging CVD-grown hexagonal Boron Nitride (hBN) monolayers with phonon-enhanced SFG microscopy. In this work we showcase the potential of SFG microscopy for imaging these otherwise optically elusive monolayers and, using rotational-dependent measurements, fully characterise their crystallographic structures. You can read more here.
As this work was a huge collaborative effort spanning several others from the FHI, particularly the Paarmann and Thämer groups, as well as colleagues from FU Berlin and Vanderbilt University in the US, I would like to thank all of the coauthors for their work in making this possible.

Martin Thämer and I organised and hosted a joint Surface Science and Biophysics Focus Session on “Chemical Imaging for the Elucidation of Molecular Structure” at the DPG Spring-Meeting in Regensburg. I was pleased to see an incredibly broad range of imaging techniques being showcased and some very interesting presentations.