Third harmonic generation in the short-wavelength UV range by a single plasmonic nanostructure

The nonlinear optical interaction of laser radiation with nanostructures formed in gold and aluminium nanofilms has been experimentally studied. It is shown that, despite the high susceptibility χ₃ of aluminium in comparison with gold, the third-harmonic generation efficiency at a wavelength of 260 nm is much higher for the nanostructures formed in a gold nanofilm because of the efficient excitation of a localised plasmon resonance at the fundamental frequency.