Origin of Second Harmonic Generation from individual Silicon Nanowires

Abstract

We investigate Second Harmonic Generation from individual silicon nanowires and study the influence of resonant optical modes on the far-field nonlinear emission. We find that the polarization of the Second Harmonic has a size-dependent behavior and explain this phenomenon by a combination of different surface and bulk nonlinear susceptibility contributions. We show that the Second Harmonic Generation has an entirely different origin, depending on whether the incident illumination is polarized parallel or perpendicularly to the nanowire axis. The results open perspectives for further geometry-based studies on the origin of Second Harmonic Generation in nanostructures of high-index centrosymmetric semiconductors.