Plasmon assisted enhanced second-harmonic generation in single hybrid Au/ZnS nanowires

We demonstrate the enhanced second-harmonic generation (SHG) in single ZnS nanowires (NWs) attached with gold nanoparticles (Au NPs). The hybrid Au/ZnS NWs with different densities of the attached Au NPs were prepared by a simple solution impregnation method. By comparing with bare ZnS NWs, ∼1.3, ∼6.6, ∼7 and ∼2 times enhancement of SH intensity was achieved in the hybrid Au/ZnS NWs with low, moderate, high and ultrahigh densities of the attached Au NPs, respectively. The enhanced SHG in the hybrid Au/ZnS NWs is attributed to the strong local-fields from the Au cluster under the near-resonant condition, which is supported by the related dark-field scattering spectra. This hybrid Au/ZnS NWs provide a simple platform for enhancing nonlinear optical responses, which have potential applications in nano-probing and nano-sensing.