title: The role of chiral local field enhancements below the resolution limit of Second Harmonic Generation microscopy.
abstract: While it has been demonstrated that, above its resolution limit, Second Harmonic Generation (SHG) microscopy can map chiral local field enhancements, below that limit, structural defects were found to play a major role. Here we show that, even below the resolution limit, the contributions from chiral local field enhancements to the SHG signal can dominate over those by structural defects. We report highly homogeneous SHG micrographs of star-shaped gold nanostructures, where the SHG circular dichroism effect is clearly visible from virtually every single nanostructure. Most likely, size and geometry determine the dominant contributions to the SHG signal in nanostructured systems.
authors.affiliation: Molecular Electronics and Photonics, INPAC, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200 D, B-3001 Leuven, Belgium. v.k.valev@fys.kuleuven.be
authors.forename: V K
authors.initials: VK
authors.lastname: Valev
authors.forename: B D
authors.initials: BD
authors.lastname: Clercq
authors.forename: X
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Denkova
authors.forename: E J
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Osley
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Vandendriessche
authors.forename: A V
authors.initials: AV
authors.lastname: Silhanek
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Volskiy
authors.forename: P A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Warburton
authors.forename: G A E
authors.initials: GA
authors.lastname: Vandenbosch
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ameloot
authors.forename: V V
authors.initials: VV
authors.lastname: Moshchalkov
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Verbiest
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000379:methods*; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D008853:Microscopy / Q000379:methods*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity