Plasmons in strongly coupled metallic nanostructures.

The discovery of the enhancement of Raman scattering by molecules adsorbed on nanostructured metal surfaces is a landmark in the history of spectroscopic and analytical techniques. Significant experimental and theoretical effort has been directed toward understanding the surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) effect and demonstrating its potential in various types of ultrasensitive sensing applications in a wide variety of fields. In the 45 years since its discovery, SERS has blossomed into a rich area of research and technology, but additional efforts are still needed before it can be routinely used analytically and in commercial products. In this Review, prominent authors from around the world joined together to summarize the state of the art in understanding and using SERS and to predict what can be expected in the near future in terms of research, applications, and technological development. This Review is dedicated to SERS pioneer and our coauthor, the late Prof. Richard Van Duyne, whom we lost during the preparation of this article.

/pdf/present-and-future-of-surface-enhanced-raman-scattering-34aqgcm385.pdf

Present and Future of Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering

The nonradiative conversion of light energy into heat (photothermal therapy, PTT) or sound energy (photoacoustic imaging, PAI) has been intensively investigated for the treatment and diagnosis of cancer, respectively. By taking advantage of nanocarriers, both imaging and therapeutic functions together with enhanced tumour accumulation have been thoroughly studied to improve the pre-clinical efficiency of PAI and PTT. In this review, we first summarize the development of inorganic and organic nano photothermal transduction agents (PTAs) and strategies for improving the PTT outcomes, including applying appropriate laser dosage, guiding the treatment via imaging techniques, developing PTAs with absorption in the second NIR window, increasing photothermal conversion efficiency (PCE), and also increasing the accumulation of PTAs in tumours. Second, we introduce the advantages of combining PTT with other therapies in cancer treatment. Third, the emerging applications of PAI in cancer-related research are exemplified. Finally, the perspectives and challenges of PTT and PAI for combating cancer, especially regarding their clinical translation, are discussed. We believe that PTT and PAI having noteworthy features would become promising next-generation non-invasive cancer theranostic techniques and improve our ability to combat cancers.

/pdf/photothermal-therapy-and-photoacoustic-imaging-via-5cxqag870v.pdf

Photothermal therapy and photoacoustic imaging via nanotheranostics in fighting cancer

Gold nanorods have been receiving extensive attention owing to their extremely attractive applications in biomedical technologies, plasmon-enhanced spectroscopies, and optical and optoelectronic devices. The growth methods and plasmonic properties of Au nanorods have therefore been intensively studied. In this review, we present a comprehensive overview of the flourishing field of Au nanorods in the past five years. We will focus mainly on the approaches for the growth, shape and size tuning, functionalization, and assembly of Au nanorods, as well as the methods for the preparation of their hybrid structures. The plasmonic properties and the associated applications of Au nanorods will also be discussed in detail.

Gold nanorods and their plasmonic properties

Recent years have seen a growing interest in using metal nanostructures to control temperature on the nanoscale. Under illumination at its plasmonic resonance, a metal nanoparticle features enhanced light absorption, turning it into an ideal nano-source of heat, remotely controllable using light. Such a powerful and flexible photothermal scheme is the basis of thermo-plasmonics. Here, the recent progress of this emerging and fast-growing field is reviewed. First, the physics of heat generation in metal nanoparticles is described, under both continuous and pulsed illumination. The second part is dedicated to numerical and experimental methods that have been developed to further understand and engineer plasmonic-assisted heating processes on the nanoscale. Finally, some of the most recent applications based on the heat generated by gold nanoparticles are surveyed, namely photothermal cancer therapy, nano-surgery, drug delivery, photothermal imaging, protein tracking, photoacoustic imaging, nano-chemistry and optofluidics.

http://www.guillaume.baffou.com/publications/020-Baffou-LPR.pdf

Thermo‐plasmonics: using metallic nanostructures as nano‐sources of heat

Plasmon-based photothermal therapy is one of the most intriguing applications of noble metal nanostructures. The photothermal conversion efficiency is an essential parameter in practically realizing this application. The effects of the plasmon resonance wavelength, particle volume, shell coating, and assembly on the photothermal conversion efficiencies of Au nanocrystals are systematically studied by directly measuring the temperature of Au nanocrystal solutions with a thermocouple and analyzed on the basis of energy balance. The temperature of Au nanocrystal solutions reaches the maximum at ∼75 °C when the plasmon resonance wavelength of Au nanocrystals is equal to the illumination laser wavelength. For Au nanocrystals with similar shapes, the larger the nanocrystal, the smaller the photothermal conversion efficiency becomes. The photothermal conversion can also be controlled by shell coating and assembly through the change in the plasmon resonance energy of Au nanocrystals. Moreover, coating Au nanocrystals with semiconductor materials that have band gap energies smaller than the illumination laser energy can improve the photothermal conversion efficiency owing to the presence of an additional light absorption channel.

Understanding the Photothermal Conversion Efficiency of Gold Nanocrystals

Localized surface plasmon resonances, which arise from the collective oscillations of the near-Fermi-level electrons in noble metal nanostructures, have received intense atten-tion in recent years due to their rich, intriguing, and complex optical properties. The localized plasmon resonances of Au and Ag nanostructures are spectrally located in the visible to near-infrared range. In addition, Au and Ag nanostructures are relatively stable in ambient environments. They have, therefore, been intensively studied from the perspectives of both funda-mental sciences

https://www.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/adma.201201896

Unraveling the evolution and nature of the plasmons in (Au core)-(Ag shell) nanorods.

Plasmonic structures exhibit promising applications in high-resolution and durable color generation. Research on advanced hybrid plasmonic materials that allow dynamically reconfigurable color control has developed rapidly in recent years. Some of these results may give rise to practically applicable reflective displays in living colors with high performance and low power consumption. They will attract broad interest from display markets, compared with static plasmonic color printing, for example, in applications such as digital signage, full-color electronic paper, and electronic device screens. In this progress report, the most promising recent examples of utilizing advanced plasmonic materials for the realization of dynamic color display are highlighted and put into perspective. The performances, advantages, and disadvantages of different technologies are discussed, with emphasis placed on both the potential and possible limitations of various hybrid materials for dynamic plasmonic color display.

Advanced Plasmonic Materials for Dynamic Color Display.

The plasmon coupling in the dimers of Au nanorods linked together at their ends with dithiol molecules has been studied. The plasmon coupling in the dimers composed of similarly sized nanorods gives antibonding and bonding plasmon modes. The plasmon wavelengths of the two modes have been found to remain approximately unchanged, with the scattering intensity ratio between the antibonding and bonding modes decaying rapidly as the angle between the nanorods is increased. This plasmon coupling behavior agrees with that obtained from both electrodynamic calculations and modeling on the basis of the dipole−dipole interaction. The electric field in the gap region is largely enhanced for the bonding mode, while that for the antibonding mode is even smaller than the far field, highlighting the importance of selecting appropriate plasmon modes for plasmon-enhanced spectroscopies. An anti-crossing-like behavior in the plasmon coupling energy diagram has further been revealed for linearly end-to-end assembled dimers ...

Lei Shao

Papers

Gold nanorods and their plasmonic properties

Understanding the Photothermal Conversion Efficiency of Gold Nanocrystals

Unraveling the evolution and nature of the plasmons in (Au core)-(Ag shell) nanorods.

Advanced Plasmonic Materials for Dynamic Color Display.

Angle- and Energy-Resolved Plasmon Coupling in Gold Nanorod Dimers