title: Highly efficient second-harmonic nanosource for near-field optics and microscopy.
abstract: A nanometric source of second-harmonic (SH) light with unprecedented efficiency is demonstrated; it exploits the grazing-incidence illumination of a metal tip, which is conventionally used for atomic force microscopy, by 25-fs laser pulses of a high-energy Ti:sapphire oscillator. Tip scanning around the beam focus shows that the SH generation is strongly localized at its apex. The polarization dependence of the SH light complies with the model of an on-axis nonlinear oscillating dipole.
authors.affiliation: Istituto Nazionale per la Fisica della Materia, Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Pisa, Via Buonarroti 2, 56127 Pisa, Italy. labardi@df.unipi.it
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Labardi
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Allegrini
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zavelani-Rossi
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Polli
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Cerullo
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: De Silvestri
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Svelto