Abstract
Optical second harmonic generation (SHG) is forbidden in the bulk of centrosymmetric media but necessarily allowed at the surface. The process has been used as a versatile tool for surface studies on a wide variety of interfaces. It is rather sensitive, capable of detecting submonolayers of molecules on surfaces with relatively low laser powers.1 Normally, pulsed laser systems are used as the pump source. It can be shown, however, that the maximum surface SH signal generated by a cw laser from most materials, assuming that the incident intensity is limited by thermal damage, may be larger or comparable with that generated by a typical pulsed laser, if the beam area is <10−5 cm2. With focusing, surface SHG can have a spatial resolution limited in principle by the optical wavelength. Thus it is ideally suited for surface optical microscopy.
© 1986 Optical Society of America
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