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  • Open Access

Surface charge pattern: Impact on vibrational spectroscopy and physics of charged interfaces

Wanlin Chen*

Marie-Pierre Gaigeot

Simone Pezzotti†

  • *Present address: Department of Physical Chemistry II, Ruhr University Bochum, D-44801 Bochum, Germany.
  • †Contact author: simone.pezzotti@ens.psl.eu
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Phys. Rev. Research 7, 033207 – Published 2 September, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/gtw7-xc2k

Abstract

Surface-specific vibrational spectroscopies revolutionized the study of charged interfaces, by sensitively probing water's response in the electric double layer (EDL) and correlating it with surface charge via models like Gouy-Chapman-Stern. The assumed one-to-one relationship between water's spectroscopic response and surface charge has been widely accepted without question. We hereby propose a theoretical experiment to evaluate this assumption. Interestingly, our findings reveal a non-one-to-one relationship between surface charge and spectroscopic response, exhibiting a fascinating dependence on surface topology.

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Phys. Rev. Research 7, 033207– Published 2 September, 2025
  • Received 7 April 2025
  • Accepted 5 June 2025
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