Role of antenna modes and field enhancement in second harmonic generation from dipole nanoantennas

We study optical second harmonic generation from metallic dipole antennas with narrow gaps. Enhancement of the fundamental- frequency field in the gap region plays a marginal role on conversion efficiency. In the symmetric configuration, i.e., with the gap located at the center of the antenna axis, reducing gap size induces a significant red-shift of the maximum conversion efficiency peak. Either enhancement or inhibition of second-harmonic emission may be observed as gap size is decreased, depending on the antenna mode excited at the harmonic frequency. The second-harmonic signal is extremely sensitive to the asymmetry introduced by gap’s displacements with respect to the antenna center. In this situation, second-harmonic light can couple to all the available antenna modes. We perform a multipolar analysis that allows engineering the far-field SH emission and find that the interaction with quasi-odd-symmetry modes generates radiation patterns with a strong dipolar component.