Speedy Surface Explorations with Principal Component Analysis

摘要

Surface chemistry is involved in a widenrange of important biological interactions,nsuch as those on cellular membranes,nas well as in industrial and pharmaceuticalnapplicationsOyet probingnthe subtle structuralnqualities of surfaces hasnremained a challenge.nBut now, in a new ACnpaper (DOI 10.1021ac901832u), NathannBegue and Garth Simpsonnof Purdue Universityncombine a techniquencalled nonlinear opticalnStokes ellipsometryn(NOSE), which can acquirendata rapidly, withnan equally speedy analysisnmethod that mergesnlinear curve fitting withnprincipal componentnanalysis (PCA); thisnoverall approach cannquickly decipher subtlencharacteristics of surfaces with unprecedentednprecision