Electric field dynamics at a metal-semiconductor interface probed by femtosecond optical second harmonic generation

Abstract The optical second harmonic generation (SHG) from a Au GaAs (100) Schottky barrier is shown to be a direct probe of the electric field dynamics near such a metal-semiconductor interface. The variation of the field induced SHG amplitude with the power and pulse width of the femtosecond excitation is found to be in good agreement with Monte Carlo simulations.