Visible second-harmonic light generated from a self-organized centrosymmetric lattice of nanospheres

We designed and fabricated a centrosymmetric material where one may be able to consider an efficient quadratic nonlinear interaction. We followed a solid phase-supported organic synthesis methodology to covalently bind a large number of highly nonlinear molecules to the surface of polystyrene nanospheres. Such chemically modified optically nonlinear latex spheres, when suspended in water, are seen to perfectly self-organize into a centrosymmetric lattice. Taking advantage of the nonlinear interaction located at the sphere-water interface and the photonic crystal properties of the fabricated material we were able to generate second-harmonic light visible to the naked eye.