Reduced Near-Resonant Vibrational Coupling at the Surfaces of Liquid Water and Ice

We study the resonant interaction of the OH stretch vibrations of water molecules at the surfaces of liquid water and ice using heterodyne-detected sum-frequency generation (HD-SFG) spectroscopy. By studying different isotopic mixtures of H2O and D2O, we vary the strength of the interaction, and we monitor the resulting effect on the HD-SFG spectrum of the OH stretch vibrations. We observe that the near-resonant coupling effects are weaker at the surface than in the bulk, both for water and ice, indicating that for both phases of water the OH vibrations are less strongly delocalized at the surface than in the bulk.

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