Abstract

The charged and structurally complex nature of the interfacial region, in systems ranging from aqueous micelles to colloidal semiconductor particles or electrodes in solution, raises important questions concerning the energetics and dynamics of molecules residing in this quasi-ordered, microscopic layer and subject to strong field gradients. The dominant themes in the experiments reported here are the changing dynamics of a charged probe molecule as it undergoes a transition from free orientational motion in the bulk liquid to more confined motion in the interface region, the molecular mechanisms responsible for those changes, and the dynamics during the phase transition through the critical micelle concentration (CMC).

© 1986 Optical Society of America