Probing the molecular response to transient electric field at the interface with voltage-jump 2DIR experiment

Electricfield plays a vital role in modulating stducture and reactivity in biochemical systems. Probing the electricfield in proteins with Stark reporters has became a widely addpoted approach in vibrational spectroscopy which also provides structral information about the system of interest. In addition, 2DIR offers dynamic structrual information at varioous timescales and recent development of plasmonically enhanced 2DIR experiments has allowed the technique to gain monolayer sensitivity. When the plasmonicaly enhanced 2DIR experiment is carried out at an conductive interface decorated with nitrile electricfield probes, the electric bilayer's response to various electrode potential can be explored. We are currently developing a technique which allows us to alter the potential or electricfield at the interface in nanosecond to microsecond timescale and observe the structral response of molecules on the itnerface. One partcilarly exciting example is the voltage gated ion channls that can be imbeded in a lipid bilayer on the plasmonically active and electrically conductive interface.