Role of refractive index in sum frequency generation intensity of salt solution interfaces

Sum frequency generation spectroscopy (SFG) has been widely used to study the interfacial chemistry of aqueous salt solutions of biological or environmental importance. Most of the SFG data analysis used the same bulk refractive index for different salt concentrations despite of the variations of the refractive indices. Here we systematically investigate the influence of the refractive index on the SFG intensities at various experimental conditions. It is discovered that the SFG intensities are the most sensitive to the refractive index at solid/liquid interfaces nearby the total internal reflection geometries. At air/liquid interfaces, the effect of the refractive indices is also nonegligible. Consequently some important SFG results, such as the response of water structures to the ionic strength at the SiO₂/aqueous interfaces, are necessary to be reevaluated. These conclusions on the effect of the small variations of the refractive index are generally useful for the common practice of SFG data analysis.