THE SHG ANISOTROPY PATTERN OF A RECONSTRUCTED GOLD(110) ELECTRODE

Second harmonic generation (SHG) anisotropy has been employed to study the rotational symmetries of single crystalline surfaces for many yea rs. However, their symmetry contributions can only be evaluated for si mple anisotropy patterns with sufficient accuracy. Such an analysis is generally not possible for reconstructed or microfaceted surfaces. We have, therefore, developed a novel approach, the interference SHG ani sotropy (ISHGA). It permits an easy and reliable decomposition of the SH field into its isotropic and anisotropic components. The analysis o f the ISHGA data provides new insights leading to a generalized model of anisotropic contributions, necessary to describe complex SHG anisot ropy patterns like that of the Au(110) surface which reconstructs by b uilding coexisting domains of (1 x 2) and (1 x 3) microfacets. (C) 199 8 Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.