Enhancement of second-harmonic generation in metal islands close to a conducting surface

Direct observation of a propagating, planar-waveguide surface mode in a discontinuous film of metal nanoparticles

We report the observation of p-polarized guided waves that propagate confined to the surface of a two-dimensional array of silver (Ag) nanoparticles of average particle diameter and film thickness of approximately 400 and 154 nm, respectively, and comparable interparticle spacing. We interpret resonant features in the attenuated total reflection angular spectrum as arising from the excitation of guided waves in our discontinuous samples. The excitation of these waves is a direct consequence of the interaction of the light field with the localized resonance of the conduction electrons in the individual metal nanoparticles.

Probing nonequilibrium electron distributions in gold by use of second-harmonic generation

Second-harmonic radiation is generated at a gold surface by use of a laser pulse that is varied in duration from 14 to 29 fs and in intensity from 10(9) to 10(11)W/cm(2) . At laser intensities below 10(10)W/cm(2) , the second-harmonic signal has the expected quadratic dependence on pump-laser intensity; however, at higher intensities, the dependence is supraquadratic. This difference arises because the leading edge of the laser pulse interacts significantly with the gold electrons to create a nonequilibrium, photoexcited distribution. The second-harmonic generation process occurs before electron-electron or electron-phonon collisions can equilibrate the distribution and therefore serves as a probe of the nonequilibrium distribution.