Imaging of the second-harmonic response of spatially-oriented individual ion-shaped nanoparticles

During the last decade, many efforts have been made to develop techniques to integrate nanostructures in functional matrices. This activity, mainly boosted by advances in nanofabrication, has enabled the development of elegant methods for the development of planar nanodevices. However, the design and implementation of embedded three-dimensional (3D) nanoarchitectures with tunable spatial orientation remains a challenge. To overcome this difficulty, an alternative is offered by the technique of sculpturing nanoparticles using ion beams (ion-beam shaping). Here, we use this method to produce an array of anisotropic and spatially-oriented gold nanoparticles embedded in silica matrix. Their orientation is then imaged by nonlinear optical microscopy based on second-harmonic generation and polarized optical beams.