Rational Design of Plasmonic Nanoparticles for Enhanced Cavitation and Cell Perforation

Metallic nanoparticles are routinely used as nanoscale antenna capable of absorbing and converting photon energy with subwavelength resolution. Many applications, notably in nanomedicine and nanobiotechnology, benefit from the enhanced optical properties of these materials, which can be exploited to image, damage, or destroy targeted cells and subcellular structures with unprecedented precision. Modern inorganic chemistry enables the synthesis of a large library of nanoparticles with an increasing variety of shapes, composition, and optical characteristic. However, identifying and tailoring nanoparticles morphology to specific applications remains challenging and limits the development of efficient nanoplasmonic technologies. In this work, we report a strategy for the rational design of gold plasmonic nanoshells (AuNS) for the efficient ultrafast laser-based nanoscale bubble generation and cell membrane perforation, which constitute one of the most crucial challenges toward the development of effective ge...