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Nanoscale Control of Optical Heating in Complex Plasmonic Systems
Nanoscale Control of Optical Heating in Complex Plasmonic Systems
T
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tion by light absorption in nano- ABSTRACT We introduce a numerical technique to investigate the temperature distribution in arbitrarily
structures is emerging as a powerful complex plasmonic systems subject to external illumination. We perform both electromagnetic and
tool in the manipulation of nanoscale ther- thermodynamic calculations based upon a time-efficient boundary element method. Two kinds of plasmonic
mally activated processes, with applications
systems are investigated in order to illustrate the potential of such a technique. First, we focus on individual
to areas such nanofluidics,1,2 nanocataly-
particles with various morphologies. In analogy with electrostatics, we introduce the concept of thermal
sis,3 photothermal cancer therapy,4⫺6 drug
delivery,7,8 imaging and spectroscopy,9⫺12 capacitance. This geometry-dependent quantity allows us to assess the temperature increase inside a plasmonic
information storage13 and processing,14,15 particle from the sole knowledge of its absorption cross section. We present universal thermal-capacitance curves
and nanoscale patterning16 (for example, for ellipsoids, rods, disks, and rings. Additionally, we investigate assemblies of nanoparticles in close proximity
via phase transitions).17,18 In this context, and show that, despite its diffusive nature, the temperature distribution can be made highly non-uniform even
plasmon-assisted photothermal pro- at the nanoscale using plasmonic systems. A significant degree of nanoscale control over the individual
cesses configure the emerging field of
temperatures of neighboring particles is demonstrated, depending on the external light wavelength and direction
thermoplasmonics,19 in which light ab-
of incidence. We illustrate this concept with simulations of gold sphere dimers and chains in water. Our work
sorption and heat dissipation are com-
peting mechanisms that rule the actual opens new possibilities for selectively controlling processes such as local melting for dynamic patterning of
temperature distribution in metallic textured materials, chemical and metabolic thermal activation, and heat delivery for producing mechanical motion
nanostructures. The goal is to use metal with spatial precision in the nanoscale.
nanoparticles under external illumination
as controlled nanosources of heat. To KEYWORDS: plasmonics · optical heating · thermodynamics · nanophotonics
this end, plasmon resonances in noble boundary element method · nanoscale control
metal nanoparticles are ideally located
in the visible and near-infrared regions
of the spectrum, and they can be tuned
Here, we provide a numerical tool to
by changes in size, morphology, and quantitatively explore the temperature dis-
composition, over which a large degree tribution in arbitrarily complex assemblies
of control has been achieved in recent of plasmonic nanoparticles exposed to ex-
years through colloidal chemistry20 and ternal illumination. The technique is time-
nanolithography.21 efficient and applies to any geometry. Un-
Despite the intensity of these efforts, a der stationary conditions, the partial
quantitative analysis of the actual tempera- absorption cross sections of nanoparticles
ture increase and its spatial distribution re- are calculated using a boundary element
mains challenging, with most works only re- method (BEM).22,23 From this, because the
porting qualitative changes or empirical heat transport equation is formally equiva-
data, except for spherical particles.17 In the lent to Poisson’s equation (i.e., to the elec- *Address correspondence to
case of continuous-wave external illumina- [email protected].
trostatic limit of the electromagnetic prob-
tion, one just needs to solve the steady- lem), we calculate the temperature profile Received for review September 2, 2009
state heat transport equation with the using the same BEM in the low-frequency and accepted December 30, 2009.
source supplied by light absorption. This limit, ¡ 0. Two different situations are ad-
Published online January 7, 2010.
has analytical solution for spheres, but it re- dressed within this paper: isolated nanopar- 10.1021/nn901144d
quires using numerical tools for other ticles with nontrivial morphology and
geometries. sphere assemblies in close proximity. © 2010 American Chemical Society
distance to the wire, and therefore, the steady-state so- where abs is the absorption cross section (we obtain
lution of this problem involves an infinite temperature this quantity numerically using BEM) and I is the irradi-
increase in the wire with respect to distant points of the ance of the incoming light (this is fixed by the experi-
surrounding medium. Similarly, an infinite planar sur- mental setup). Relating this to the Coulomb potential
710 VOL. 4 ▪ NO. 2 ▪ BAFFOU ET AL. www.acsnano.org
ARTICLE
Figure 1. Photothermal heating of a 100 nm gold nanosphere placed in water. (a) Schematic representation of the sphere
showing the orientation of the external electric field E and the light wavevector k. (b) Electric near-field intensity normal-
ized to the incident field intensity, (c) heat generation density, and (d) equilibrium distribution of temperature increase for
a light wavelength ⴝ 530 nm, tuned to the particle dipole plasmon. (e) Absorption power as a function of light wavelength.
The incident light intensity is 1 mW /m2 in all cases.
produced by a uniformly charged sphere in a homoge- fining the ends of a gold rod with hemispherical
neous medium of effective permittivity water, we find25 caps. The figure represents the thermal inhomoge-
neity defined by |⌬T1 ⫺ ⌬T2|/(⌬T1 ⫹ ⌬T2), where ⌬Tj
σabsI P
∆TNP ) ) (3) are the temperature increments at the apex of the
4πRκwater 4πRκwater
rod ends, as a function of the rod aspect ratio. The
Incidentally, the 1/r dependence of ⌬T(r) outside the inhomogeneity remains low (⬍0.1) up to an aspect
particle leads to an infinite amount of thermal energy ratio of ⬇10, and it gradually increases as the rod be-
stored in the surrounding medium. comes more elongated, slowly evolving toward the
Figure 1 illustrates the different field profiles in- asymptotic value of 1, which corresponds to no heat-
volved for a 100 nm gold sphere. The absorption power ing of the rod end opposite to the source. Despite
density is p ⬃ 1 nW/nm3, the absorption power is P ⬃ the divergence of ⌬T at the point source location, it
1 W, and the temperature increase is ⌬T ⬃ 50 K for an should be noted that the definition of thermal inho-
illumination intensity of 1 mW/ m2. Panels b⫺d of Fig- mogeneity given above is not very sensitive to the
ure 1 are obtained for the wavelength of maximum ab- actual location of the source as long as it is close to
sorption, ⫽ 530 nm (Figure 1e). In the long- the particle end because the direct field of the
wavelength limit, one would find a uniform electric source is efficiently quenched by the large value of
field inside the particle, but retardation effects lead to gold, and an induced thermal source is transferred to
significant non-uniformity in the absorption density the surface to produce a dominant induced thermal
(Figure 1c). However, under the UTA, the temperature field, in agreement with the nearly perfect-thermal-
profile is uniform inside the particle and described by conductor behavior of the metal relative to the sur-
eq 2 outside it (Figure 1d). rounding water.
Validity of the Uniform-Temperature Approximation (UTA).
Since the temperature distribution responds to Pois-
son’s equation, which is scale invariant, it depends on
particle size only indirectly through the size depen-
dence of the absorption power density. For a small
sphere, p(r) is uniform and the temperature increase in-
side it (r ⬍ R) becomes
Figure 3. Universal dimensionless thermal-capacitance coefficient  for ellipsoids, rods with hemispherical caps, disks, and
rings as a function of their aspect ratio D/d (see insets). This coefficient relates the temperature increase of an irradiated nano-
particle to the absorption power and the thermal conductivity of the surrounding medium, according to eq 4. We show nu-
merical simulations (symbols) compared to the fitting functions of Table 1 (curves). The value of  is given for a particle of vol-
ume equal to that of a sphere of equivalent radius Req ⴝ (d2D/8)1/3 for ellipsoids, Req ⴝ [(3D ⴚ d)d2/16]1/3 for rods, Req ⴝ (3D2d/
16)1/3 for disks, and Req ⴝ (3d2D/16)1/3 for rings.
TABLE 1. Fitting Functions of the Dimensionless Thermal-Capacitance Coefficient  for the Structures Considered in Figure
3, As a Function of Their Aspect Ratio D/d
ellipsoid: β ) exp{√1+0.0416 ln2(D/1.85d) + 0.092 ln(D/1.85d) - 1}
rod: β ) 1 + 0.96587 ln2(D/d)
disk: β ) exp{0.040 - 0.0124 ln(D/d) + 0.0677 ln2(D/d) - 0.00457 ln3(D/d)}
ring: β ) 1.021 + 0.17442 ln2(D/d - 0.625)
Figure 4. Increase in temperature at each of the 100 nm spheres forming a water-immersed gold dimer as a function of
light wavelength and gap distance d between particle surfaces. (a) Sketch of the dimer, illuminated by a 1 mW/m2
p-polarized light plane-wave under an angle of incidence ⴝ 45° with respect to the axis or rotational symmetry. (b,c) Tem-
perature increase in the upper and lower spheres, ⌬Tup and ⌬Tdown, respectively. (d) Ratio of the partial absorption cross sec-
tions of the upper and lower spheres. (e) Ratio of temperature increase, ⌬Tup/⌬Tdown.
Figure 5. Increase in temperature at each of the 100 nm spheres forming a water-immersed gold dimer as a function of
light wavelength and angle of incidence for fixed gap distance between sphere surfaces d ⴝ 10 nm (see Figure 4a). (a,b)
Light absorption and extinction cross sections of the dimer, respectively. (c) Ratio of the partial absorption cross sections
of the upper and lower spheres. (d) Ratio of temperature increase. (e) Electric near-field intensity for ⴝ 0 (see inset) and
ⴝ 550 nm, normalized to the external field intensity. (f) Same as (e), for ⴝ 45° and ⴝ 650 nm. (g,h) Distribution of tem-
perature increase under the illumination conditions of (e) and (f), respectively. (eⴚh) Correspond to the conditions signaled
by short arrows in (d). The incident light intensity is 1 mW/m2 in all cases.
ture ratio can be tuned by playing with light wave- chains28,29 and the temperature distribution upon exter-
length, and it is possible to control which of the two nal illumination.
spheres reaches a higher temperature. In particular,
a temperature ratio in the 0.8⫺1.4 range is achiev- CONCLUSIONS
able for incidence along the dimer axis and wave- In conclusion, we have addressed the issue of quan-
lengths in the 550⫺650 nm range. titatively solving the temperature distribution in illumi-
Linear Array of Gold Spheres. The contrast of tempera- nated nanostructures, for which we have combined
ture increase can be made higher in arrays formed by electromagnetic calculations and a solution of the heat
a larger number of particles. This is illustrated in Figure diffusion equation under stationary conditions, for-
6 for a chain of 15 gold spheres illuminated as shown in mally equivalent the Poisson equation for the electro-
Figure 6a. The total absorption cross section of the ar- static problem. We have solved both Maxwell’s equa-
ray (Figure 6e) exhibits two maxima at 525 and 630 nm, tions for the electrodynamic calculation and Poisson’s
which are directly translated into maxima of the partial equation for the temperature distribution using a com-
mon boundary element method approach, with the dis-
absorption cross sections of the individual particles (Fig-
tribution of electric field intensity predicted by the
ure 6b,c). The shadowing effect noted for the dimer is
former acting as the source of the latter equation. The
also taking place in this chain, so that the upper spheres
boundary element method provides rigorous solutions
are more likely to absorb light that is directly imping-
of these equations but requires only surface rather than
ing on them. This is the case for a wavelength of 525
volume parametrization, thus resulting in a significant
nm, which corresponds to excitation of localized plas-
reduction in computation time compared to other tech-
mons. However, the 630 nm feature is associated with
niques (see refs 30 and 31). We have presented temper-
propagating plasmons, and thus, the electromagnetic
ature distributions driven by plasmon excitation in
energy picked up by all spheres propagates down the
gold single spheres, sphere dimers, and sphere chains
chain and produces maximum absorption in its lower immersed in water. We have also provided universal
part, with softer replicas at intermediate positions orig- curves for a dimensionless thermal-capacitance coeffi-
inating in the standing waves set up by multiple reflec- cient that allows obtaining the temperature change of
tions at the chain ends. This guided mode is strongly at- irradiated particles of various shapes (ellipsoids, rods,
tenuated but sufficiently strong as to allow the disks, and rings), using as input the absorption cross
maximum temperature change to be chosen at nearly section, the light intensity, and the thermal conductiv-
arbitrary positions along the chain by just selecting the ity of the surrounding medium.
appropriate wavelength (Figure 6d). We hope that Our methods have general applicability to nano-
these preliminary results trigger further activity to ex- structures of arbitrary morphology by relying on full
plore the interplay between guided modes in particle 3D implementations of the BEM.30,31 A large degree of
714 VOL. 4 ▪ NO. 2 ▪ BAFFOU ET AL. www.acsnano.org
ARTICLE
Figure 6. Photothermal heating in a nanoparticle array. (a) We consider a chain of 15 gold nanospheres surrounded by wa-
ter and illuminated as shown in the drawing. The spheres are 50 nm in diameter, and the gap between consecutive particles
is 5 nm. (b) Partial absorption cross section of each of the spheres as a function of light wavelength. (c) Temperature in-
crease of the nanoparticles for 1 mW/m2 incident light intensity. (d) Temperature increase of the nanoparticles, normal-
ized to the temperature increase of the hottest sphere for each wavelength. (e) Total absorption cross section of the array
(abs ⴝ冱jabs,j).
control over the temperature increase of individual butions of temperature driven in nanostructures by
spheres has been shown to be attainable by playing photothermal absorption. This opens a new route to-
with the illumination geometry and light wavelength. ward nanoscale control of local melting, thermal activa-
This can be viewed as a control over the distribution of tion at the molecular level, and heat delivery in gen-
photothermal nanosources, which are tuned to pro- eral, with potential applications to nanostructure
duce controllable temperature distributions on the shaping, drug delivery, and far-field steering of me-
nanoscale. Our work allows predicting accurate distri- chanical motion.
MATERIALS AND METHODS particle. The material properties of gold are implemented
Optical Simulations. The electric near-field and scattering into the calculations using the experimental dielectric func-
cross sections for individual and arrayed spheres are calcu- tion gold measured by Johnson and Christy.32 The water is
lated using the boundary element method, described considered to have a dielectric function water ⫽ 1.777.
elsewhere.22,23 The calculations are contrasted to the mul- Thermal Diffusion Simulations. The Poisson equation, to which
tiple elastic scattering of multipole expansions (MESME) the thermal diffusion equation reduces in the steady-state re-
method,26 and no differences are observed that can be dis- gime, is solved to obtain Figure 2 using the BEM in the ¡ 0
cerned on the scale of the figures. Partial absorption cross limit. For Figures 3⫺6, we have developed a new BEM implemen-
sections are obtained in BEM for each particle by integrat- tation specialized for particles with uniform temperatures (UTA
ing the Poynting vector over a sphere surrounding it. These approximation). In particular, for an individual particle (e.g., for
cross sections are also calculated in MESME from the coeffi- the geometries considered in Figure 3), the temperature in the
cients of multipolar spherical waves in the vicinity of each water can be expressed as