Optical Kerr effect of liquid and supercooled water: the experimental and data analysis perspective

Protein Crowding Effects on Hydration Water Dynamics

We propose a time-resolved optical Kerr effect study of the structural and vibrational dynamics of the hydration water surrounding the lysozyme on a very fast time scale. Measurements as a function of lysozyme concentration make it possible to distinguish the hydration water contribution from that of both the bulk water and the protein. Our results provide experimental evidence of the existence of two structural dynamics of hydration water, associated with a hydrogen bond exchange relaxation process and with the reorganization of water molecules induced by protein structural fluctuations. Likewise, we evaluated the vibrational dynamics of the water hydration layer at subpicosecond time scales. Our measurements of hydration water properties reveal the presence of a crossover point at a specific protein concentration. This crossover marks the transition between two clustering regimes with distinct hydration characteristics and establishes a possible threshold for protein crowding.

Dynamics of Concentrated Aqueous Lithium Chloride Solutions Investigated with Optical Kerr Effect Experiments

We report the dynamics of concentrated lithium chloride aqueous solutions over a range of moderate to high concentrations. Concentrations (1-29 to 1-3.3 LiCl-water) were studied in which, at the highest concentrations, there are far too few water molecules to solvate the ions. The measurements were made with optically heterodyne-detected optical Kerr effect experiments, a non-resonant technique able to observe dynamics over a wide range of time scales and signal amplitudes. While the pure water decay is a biexponential, the LiCl-water decays are tetra-exponentials at all concentrations. The faster two decays arise from water dynamics, while the slower two decays reflect the dynamics of the ion-water network. The fastest decay (t₁) is the same as pure water at all concentrations. The second decay (t₂) is also the same as that of pure water at the lower concentrations, and then, it slows with increasing concentration. The slower dynamics (t₃ and t₄), which do not have counterparts in pure water, arise from ion-water complexes and, at the highest concentrations, an extended ion-water network. Comparisons are made between the concentration dependence of the observed dynamics and simulations of structural changes from the literature, which enable the assignment of dynamics to specific ion-water structures. The concentration dependences of the bulk viscosity and the ion-water network dynamics are directly correlated. The correlation provides an atomistic-level understanding of the viscosity.

Dynamics of Acrylamide Hydrogels, Polymers, and Monomers in Water Measured with Optical Heterodyne-Detected Optical Kerr Effect Spectroscopy

The ultrafast dynamics of acrylamide monomers (AAm), polyacrylamide (PAAm), and polyacrylamide hydrogels (PAAm-HG) in water were studied using optical heterodyne-detected optical Kerr effect (OHD-OKE) spectroscopy. Previous ultrafast infrared (IR) measurements of the water dynamics showed that at the same concentration of the acrylamide moiety, AAm, PAAm, and PAAm-HG exhibited identical water dynamics and that these dynamics slowed with increasing concentration. In contrast to the IR measurements, OHD-OKE experiments measure the dynamics of both the water and the acrylamide species, which occur on different time scales. In this study, the dynamics of all the acrylamide systems slowed with increasing concentration. We found that AAm exhibits tetraexponential decays, the longest component of which followed Debye-Stokes-Einstein behavior except for the highest concentration, 40% (w/v). Low concentrations of PAAm followed a single power law decay, while high concentrations of PAAm and all concentrations of PAAm-HG decayed with two power laws. The highest concentrations, 25% and 40%, of PAAm and PAAm-HG showed nearly identical dynamics. We interpreted this result as reflecting a similar extent of chain-chain interactions. At low concentrations, PAAm displays non-Markovian, single-chain dynamics (single power law), but PAAm displays entangled chain-chain interactions at high concentrations (two power laws). PAAm-HG has chain-chain interactions at all concentrations that arise from the cross-linking. At high concentrations, the dynamics of the entangled of PAAm become identical within error as those of the cross-linked PAAm-HG.

Optical Kerr Effect of Liquid Acetonitrile Probed by Femtosecond Time-Resolved X-ray Liquidography

Optical Kerr effect (OKE) spectroscopy is a method that measures the time-dependent change of the birefringence induced by an optical laser pulse using another optical laser pulse and has been used often to study the ultrafast dynamics of molecular liquids. Here we demonstrate an alternative method, femtosecond time-resolved X-ray liquidography (fs-TRXL), where the microscopic structural motions related to the OKE response can be monitored using a different type of probe, i.e., X-ray solution scattering. By applying fs-TRXL to acetonitrile and a dye solution in acetonitrile, we demonstrate that different types of molecular motions around photoaligned molecules can be resolved selectively, even without any theoretical modeling, based on the anisotropy of two-dimensional scattering patterns and extra structural information contained in the q-space scattering data. Specifically, the dynamics of reorientational (libration and orientational diffusion) and translational (interaction-induced motion) motions are captured separately by anisotropic and isotropic scattering signals, respectively. Furthermore, the two different types of reorientational motions are distinguished from each other by their own characteristic scattering patterns and time scales. The measured time-resolved scattering signals are in excellent agreement with the simulated scattering signals based on a molecular dynamics simulation for plausible molecular configurations, providing the detailed structural description of the OKE response in liquid acetonitrile.

Optical Force-Induced Chemistry at Solution Surfaces

When an intense 1,064-nm continuous-wave laser is tightly focused at solution surfaces, it exerts an optical force on molecules, polymers, and nanoparticles (NPs). Initially, molecules and NPs are gathered into a single assembly inside the focus, and the laser is scattered and propagated through the assembly. The expanded laser further traps them at the edge of the assembly, producing a single assembly much larger than the focus along the surface. Amino acids and inorganic ionic compounds undergo crystallization and crystal growth, polystyrene NPs form periodic arrays and disklike structures with concentric circles or hexagonal packing, and Au NPs demonstrate assembling and swarming, in which the NPs fluctuate like a group of bees. These phenomena that depend on laser polarization are called optically evolved assembling at solution surfaces, and their dynamics and mechanisms are elucidated in this review. As a promising application in materials science, the optical trapping assembly of lead halide perovskites, supramolecules, and aggregation-induced emission enhancement-active molecules is demonstrated and future directions for fundamental study are discussed.

Anomalously Large Assembly Formation of Polystyrene Nanoparticles by Optical Trapping at the Solution Surface

We demonstrated the optical trapping-induced formation of a single large disc-like assembly (∼50 μm in diameter) of polystyrene (PS) nanoparticles (NPs) (100 nm in diameter) at a solution surface. Different from the conventional trapping behavior in solution, the assembly grows from the focus to the outside along the surface and contains needle structures expanding radially in all directions. Upon switching off the trapping laser, the assembly disperses and needle structures disappear, while the highly concentrated domain of the NPs is left for a while. The single assembly is quickly restored by switching on the laser again, where the needle structures are also reproduced but in a different way. When a single 10 μm PS microparticle (MP) is trapped in the NP solution, a single disc-like assembly containing needle structures is similarly prepared outside the MP. Based on backscattering imaging and tracking analyses of the MP at the solution surface, it is proposed that scattering and propagation of the trapping laser from the central part of the NP assembly or the MP lead to this new phenomenon.

The polarizability response of a glass-forming liquid reveals intrabasin motion and interbasin transitions on a potential energy landscape

Potential energy landscape (PEL) concepts have been useful in conceptualizing the effects of intermolecular interactions on dynamic and thermodynamic properties of liquids and glasses. "Basins", or regions of reduced potential energy associated with locally preferred molecular packing are important PEL features. The molecular configurations at the bottom of these basins are referred to as inherent structures (ISs). Experimental methods for directly characterizing PEL features such as these are rare, largely relegating PEL concepts to theory and simulation studies, and impeding their exploration in real systems. Recently, we showed that quasielastic neutron scattering (QENS) data from propylene carbonate (PC) exhibit signatures of picosecond timescale motion that are consistent with intrabasin motion and interbasin transitions [Cicerone et al., J. Chem. Phys., 2017, 146, 054502]. Here we present optically-heterodyne-detected optical Kerr effect (OHD-OKE) spectroscopy studies on PC. The data exhibit signatures of motion within and transitions between basins that agree quantitatively with and extend the QENS results. We show that the librational component of the OKE response corresponds to intrabasin dynamics, and the enigmatic intermediate OKE response corresponds to interbasin transition events. The OKE data extend the measurement range of these parameters and reveal their utility in characterizing PEL features of real systems.

Pressure Effects on Water Dynamics by Time-Resolved Optical Kerr Effect

Despite water being the most common and most widely studied substance in the world, it still presents unknown aspects. In particular, water shows several thermodynamic and dynamical anomalies in the liquid and supercooled metastable phases, and the natures of these phases are still hotly debated. Here, we report measurements of water using the optical Kerr effect as a function of pressure along two isotherms, at 273 K from 0.1 to 750 MPa and at 297 K from 0.1 to 1350 MPa, reaching the supercooled metastable phase. The structural relaxation and the low frequency vibrational dynamics of water show a peculiar pressure dependence similar to that of other dynamical properties. The data analysis suggests the presence in the water phase diagram of a crossover area that divides two regions characterized by different dynamic regimes, which appear to be related to two liquid forms, one dominated by the high density water and the other by the low density water.

Molecular polarizability anisotropy of liquid water revealed by terahertz-induced transient orientation

Reaction pathways of biochemical processes are influenced by the dissipative electrostatic interaction of the reagents with solvent water molecules. The simulation of these interactions requires a parametrization of the permanent and induced dipole moments. However, the underlying molecular polarizability of water and its dependence on ions are partially unknown. Here, we apply intense terahertz pulses to liquid water, whose oscillations match the timescale of orientational relaxation. Using a combination of terahertz pump / optical probe experiments, molecular dynamics simulations, and a Langevin dynamics model, we demonstrate a transient orientation of their dipole moments, not possible by optical excitation. The resulting birefringence reveals that the polarizability of water is lower along its dipole moment than the average value perpendicular to it. This anisotropy, also observed in heavy water and alcohols, increases with the concentration of sodium iodide dissolved in water. Our results enable a more accurate parametrization and a benchmarking of existing and future water models.

The intermolecular dynamics of liquid water impact most biological processes. Here, the authors use intense terahertz electromagnetic pulses to generate a transient, out-of-equilibrium state of the water network to show that the molecules become oriented and probe the polarizability of this anisotropic state.

Experimentally probing the libration of interfacial water: the rotational potential of water is stiffer at the air/water interface than in bulk liquid

Most properties of liquid water are determined by its hydrogen-bond network. Because forming an aqueous interface requires termination of this network, one might expect the molecular level properties of interfacial water to markedly differ from water in bulk. Intriguingly, much prior experimental and theoretical work has found that, from the perspective of their time-averaged structure and picosecond structural dynamics, hydrogen-bonded OH groups at an air/water interface behave the same as hydrogen-bonded OH groups in bulk liquid water. Here we report the first experimental observation of interfacial water's libration (i.e. frustrated rotation) using the laser-based technique vibrational sum frequency spectroscopy. We find this mode has a frequency of 834 cm(-1), ≈165 cm(-1) higher than in bulk liquid water at the same temperature and similar to bulk ice. Because libration frequency is proportional to the stiffness of water's rotational potential, this increase suggests that one effect of terminating bulk water's hydrogen bonding network at the air/water interface is retarding rotation of water around intact hydrogen bonds. Because in bulk liquid water the libration plays a key role in stabilizing reaction intermediates and dissipating excess vibrational energy, we expect the ability to probe this mode in interfacial water to open new perspectives on the kinetics of heterogeneous reactions at aqueous interfaces.

Femtosecond optical Kerr effect setup with signal "live view" for measurements in the solid, liquid, and gas phases

We present the experimental setup constructed in our laboratory for measurement of the femtosecond optical Kerr effect. The setup allows measurements with high temporal resolution and acquisition speed. The high signal to noise ratio is obtained with use of a homemade balanced detector. Due to the high acquisition speed and good signal to noise ratio, it is possible to have a "live view" of the signal and to easily tune the sample position and orientation before the measurement. We show the example results obtained in the solid, liquid, and the gas phases and we use them in order to check on the precision of our setup. As the samples we have used a YAG crystal, liquid acetone, and atmospheric air. In the latter two cases, a good agreement with the literature data has been found. The measurements in the gas phase confirm that our setup, although utilizing low energy pulses from the sapphire oscillator, is able to acquire high quality rotational signal in a low density sample.

Supercooling and freezing processes in nanoconfined water by time-resolved optical Kerr effect spectroscopy

Using heterodyne-detected optical Kerr effect (HD-OKE) measurements, we investigate the vibrational dynamics and the structural relaxation of water nanoconfined in Vycor porous silica samples (pore size ≃ 4 nm) at different levels of hydration and temperatures. At low levels of hydration corresponding to two complete superficial water layers, no freezing occurs and the water remains mobile at all the investigated temperatures with dynamic features similar, but not equal to, the bulk water. The fully hydrated sample shows the formation of ice at about 248 K. This process does not involve all the contained water; a part of it remains in a supercooled phase. The structural relaxation times measured from the decay of the time-dependent HD-OKE signal shows the temperature dependence largely affected by the hydration level; the low frequency (ν < 500 cm(-1)) vibrational spectra obtained by the Fourier transforms of the HD-OKE signal appear less affected by confinement.