Eur. Phys. J. D 16, 321-324 (2001)
https://doi.org/10.1007/s100530170120

Second harmonic generation in Ga nanoparticle monolayers

¹ INFM - Dip. Elettronica, Università di Pavia, Via Ferrata 1, I-27100 Pavia, Italy
² INFM - Dip. Fisica "A. Volta" Università di Pavia, Via Bassi 6, I-27100 Pavia, Italy
³ Laboratoire de la Physique de la Matière Condensée, Université de Nice Sophia Antipolis, 06108 Nice Cedex, France

Corresponding author: ^a malvezzi@ele.unipv.it

Received: 29 November 2000
Published online: 15 September 2001

Abstract

Ga nanoparticle monolayers formed by evaporation-condensation in ultrahigh vacuum and embedded in a transparent SiO_x matrix generate second harmonic (SH) signals in transmission and reflection when illuminated by a 150 fs, 800 nm laser pulses. The observed SH light exhibits a critical dependence on input and output polarizations, angle of incidence and azimuthal orientation of the samples. The results lead to a consistent picture of shape and orientation of the nanoparticles. Linear transmittance spectra in the visible range support these findings and the observed size dependence of the SH signal.