Self-assembled organic and fullerene monolayers characterisation by two-colour SFG spectroscopy: a pathway to meet doubly resonant SFG process

Two-colour sum-frequency generation (two-colour SFG) spectroscopy was used to probe both vibrational and electronic properties of 1-dodecanethiol/Ag(1 1 1), Au(1 1 1), and Pt(1 1 1), of 5-[p-(6-mercaptohexoxy)-phenyl]-10,15,20-triphenylporphin/Pt(1 1 1), and of C60/Ag(1 1 1). The role of the various physical parameters determining the sum-frequency generation (SFG) intensity equation is highlighted. The enhancement of the non-linear second order susceptibility in the aforementioned interfaces is explained in terms of metal interband transition, molecular electronic transition and of electron–phonon coupling, respectively.