A novel approach for phototherapy is proposed. The proposed method is based on cell apoptosis according to halting activation of cancer cell membrane receptor by exposure to UV light pulses without any side effect. In the proposed method, gold nanoparticles are directed to cancerous cells by conjugating their surface with specific ligands. UV light is created locally adjacent to cells around the gold nanoparticles. UV light is generated due to nonlinear interaction of visible light with gold nanoparticles because of enhancement in third order nonlinear effects. For example, by using 780 nm laser, 260 nm UV will be generated around the nanoparticle because of third harmonic generation process. As the generated UV is localized around the cell, there will be no side effect for other cells. We have numerically analyzed the proposed method by solving Maxwell's equation considering third order nonlinear susceptibility and dispersion behavior of permittivity by 3D nonlinear finite difference time domain using Newton–Raphson method. Simulation results for different geometries show that UV light will be generated around gold nanoparticle and it is maximum in hot spots where electric field enhancement occurs. Simulation results illustrate that there is neither UV irradiation side effect to healthy cells, nor harmful temperature rise.
Third-order nonlinear effects on femtosecond x-ray-absorption near-edge spectra