Understanding the second harmonic generation of light from nanometal composites

We have synthesized two sets of nanometal composites of different metal concentrations via electrodeposition of gold into porous aluminum oxide membranes(1,2) Within each set, both centrosymmetric and non-centrosymmetric particles were produced whose linear and nonlinear optical effects were investigated. Because our method of template synthesis allows for the close examination of our composite materials in terms of shape, size, and symmetry, we can interpret the SHG response in terms of differences in local field enhancements of magnetic dipole and quadrupole modes(1).