Università degli studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia

Second Harmonic Generation

Among the various optical spectroscopies used to probe surfaces and interfaces, second order nonlinear optical techniques (ie Second Harmonic Generation (SHG)) have been widely recognized for their ability to determine the electronic structure and vibrational dynamics of surfaces. These techniques allow non-invasive in situ characterization of thin films, surfaces and interfaces, in all pressure regimes, which is extremely important for the development of new materials and new growth processes, especially now that the electronics at the nanoscale and photonics are growing. Our group aims to combine state of the art theoretical and computational developments and their applications to low dimensional systems. The primary purpose is in fact the development of new theoretical and computational tools for a better description of the optical properties in particular beyond the linear limit. These tools, developed on ab-initio methods based on density functional (DFT), aim to understand the link between the observed changes in optical properties and the concomitant changes in the structure of the material under study (eg nanopatterning, surface chemistry, the nature of interfaces, etc).

• Dr. Eleonora Luppi, Department of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley CA, (USA)

• Dr. Valérie Véniard, Laboratoire des Solides Irradiés École Polytechnique, Palaiseau cedex (France)