Role of surface plasmon in second harmonic generation from gold nanorods

The role of surface plasmon in second harmonic generation from arrays of gold nanorod particles excited by femtosecond laser pulses is investigated as a function of incident light polarization and irradiation wavelength. In addition to photoluminescence, a peak of second harmonic is observed and is found to depend on the polarization and wavelength of the fundamental frequency laser beam. In particular, the authors found similarities between extinction spectra of the nanoparticles and spectra of emmitted second harmonic. This behavior can be explained by resonant excitation of localized surface plasmon resonances. (c) 2007 American Institute of Physics.