Direct observation of ultrafast dynamics of electron thermalization in gold using surface SHG

Description

This item was taken from the IEEE Conference ' Direct observation of ultrafast dynamics of electron thermalization in gold using surface SHG ' Summary form only given. We describe a pump-probe optical measurement that reveals the details of hot electron thermalization dynamics by monitoring the time evolution of both the fundamental (1.55 eV) and second harmonic generation (SHG, 3.1 eV) signals from a gold (Au) surface. The 110-fs laser pulse from an amplified Ti:sapphire laser system is split into an intense pump beam and a weak probe beam with crossed polarization (p-polarization for probe). Both fundamental and surface SHG signals are generated by the probe beam and monitored simultaneously.