Elucidating the Fundamental Interactions of Very Small Particles: Ultrafast Science

This chapter is a review of both ultrafast and nano-sciences, and intends to bridge the gap between these two topics. For this purpose, the chapter illustrates the most widely used and most promising experimental techniques borrowed from ultrafast science and applied to the study of nanoparticles and thin films. Primarily, it discusses the basis of ultrafast science, namely ultrashort laser sources and their basic interactions with matter, that is with atoms and molecules. Special attention is devoted to the very hot topics, such as attosecond and few-optical-cycle pulse generation and characterization, which are currently at the border of science and may open the way for new intriguing techniques of time-resolved investigation. Some applications of ultrafast optical techniques to the study of interfacial properties are discussed in the chapter. In particular, it describes two nonlinear optical techniques that recently have proven very promising for the study of interfaces: SSHG and SSFG. Two techniques are compared with other classical optical techniques. Theoretical considerations about SSHG and SSFG is presented Special attention is devoted to describe those aspects of theory that are of interest for the chemistry and physics of nanoparticles. Finally, the discussion dealt with femtochemistry of surfaces. The latter is of fundamental importance, for example, in the study of nanoparticle contaminants and molecular films, catalysis, and other chemical reactions occurring at interfaces. © 2008 William Andrew Inc. All rights reserved.