Coupled 2D Ag nano-resonator chains for enhanced and spatially tailored second harmonic generation

We report results of second harmonic generation calculations performed on Silver coupled 2D-nanoresonators. Coupling is responsible for the creation of resonant modes that can be localized on small portions of the structure or distributed over the whole structure. Different field profiles can be obtained by varying the parameters of the input field (i.e. the wavelength). The second harmonic generation nonlinear process is enhanced by the excitation of coupled surface plasmon polaritons. The emitted field is strongly affected by the linear properties of the structure behaving as a nano antenna. We note that different configurations of the pump field lead to different second harmonic far-field emission patterns. Also, we show that the angular emission of the second harmonic field contains information about the spatial location of the pump field hot spots at different frequencies. Applications to a new class of nano sources for single molecule fluorescence and sensors are proposed. (C) 2011 Optical Society of America