Abstract

Optical second-harmonic generation (SHG) has been widely demonstrated as a surface- specific probe of centrosymmetric media.¹ Applications of the method and the corresponding theoretical formulations have been limited primarily to planar surfaces and interfaces. Recently, however, experimental studies have demonstrated the sensitivity of SHG to the surface of spherical particles of dimensions as small as ~100 nm² These results offer the promise of an extension of the SHG technique to a new class of systems of physical and chemical interest.

© 1999 Optical Society of America