Fig. 2

Angle-resolved second harmonic scattering patterns obtained through Fourier imaging. a Image of the angle-resolved second harmonic scattering (AR-SHS) scattering pattern for 320 nm polystyrene beads coated with malachite green, b Image of the AR-SHS scattering pattern for 320 nm polystyrene beads coated with malachite green with insertion of a polarizing sheet along the S-polarization direction) in the lower half of the back focal plane. By symmetry considerations the SSS signal (i.e., both the incident and detected light along the S-polarization direction) originating from the surface of polystyrene beads coated with malachite green vanishes⁶⁰, which is why the bottom half of the image appears dark. The blue and green areas depict the regions of interest analyzed in Fig. 2c. c Graphs of selected areas render AR-SHS for different polarization combinations simultaneously: blue no polarizing sheet, PSS (i.e., incident light along the S-polarization direction and detected light along the P-polarization direction) + SSS; green polarizing sheet: SSS