Absorption and Scattering Microscopy of Single Metal Nanoparticles.

M. A. van Dijk (1) , A. L. Tchebotareva (1) , Michel Orrit (1) , Markus Lippitz (2) , Stéphane Berciaud (3) , David Lasne (3) , Laurent Cognet (3) , Brahim Lounis (3)

1 MoNOS, Huygens Laboratory
2 Institute for Physical Chemistry
3 CPMOH - Centre de physique moléculaire optique et hertzienne

Several recently developed detection techniques opened studies of individual metal nanoparticles (1-100 nm in diameter) in the optical far field. Eliminating averaging over the broad size and shape distributions produced by even the best of current synthesis methods, these studies hold great promise for gaining a deeper insight into many of the properties of metal nanoparticles, notably electronic and vibrational relaxation. All methods are based on detection of a scattered wave emitted either by the particle itself, or by its close environment. Direct absorption and interference techniques rely on the particle's scattering and have similar limits in signal-to-noise ratio. The photothermal method uses a change in the refractive index of the environment as an additional step to enhance the scattered wave. This leads to a considerably improved sensitivity. We briefly discuss and compare these various techniques, review the new results they generated so far, and conclude on their great potential for nanoscience and for single-molecule labelling in biological assays and live cells.

Domaines: Optique [physics.optics]

M. A. van Dijk, A. L. Tchebotareva, Michel Orrit, Markus Lippitz, Stéphane Berciaud, et al.. Absorption and Scattering Microscopy of Single Metal Nanoparticles.. Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 2006, 8, pp.3486. ⟨10.1039/b606090k⟩. ⟨hal-00143921v2⟩