Two new techniques useful for FTIR studies of biolog-ical membranes are discussed. First, we have developed a sensitive new method of obtaining attenuated total reflection (ATR) spectra of unilamellar lipid bilayers in con-tact with bulk water, by coating the bilayers on infrared-transmitting-optical fibers. Second, we have made several improvements in commercially available software for collecting time-resolved FTIR spectra; our modifications result in a substantial increase in data collection speed and a decrease in baseline artifacts in microsecond time-resolved FTIR spectra of biological samples.