Optical Detection of core-gold nanoshells inside biosystems

Metal nanoshells having a dielectric core with a thin gold layer are generating new interest due to the unique optical, electric and magnetic properties exhibited by the local field enhancement near the metal – dielectric core interface. These nanoshells possess strong, highly tunable local plasmon resonances with frequencies dependent upon the nanoshell shape and core material. These unique characteristics have applications in biosensing, optical communication and medicine. In this paper, we developed a theoretical, numerical and experimental approach based on a scanning near optical microscope to identify nanoshells inside mouse cells. Taking advantage of the characteristic near-infrared transparency window of many biological systems, i.e. the low light absorption coefficient of biological systems between 750−1100 nm, we were able to identify a 100−150 nm diameter barium titanate-gold nanoshell inside the h9c2 mouse cells.

Ultra small clusters of gold nanoshells detected by SNOM

Metal nanoshells are a type of nanoparticle composed by a dielectric core and a metallic coating. These nanoparticles have stimulated interest due to their remarkable optical properties. In common with metal colloids, they show distinctive absorption peaks at specific wavelengths due to surface plasmon resonance. However, unlike bare metal colloids, the wavelengths at which resonance occurs can be tuned by changing the core radius and coating thickness. One basic application of such property is in medicine, where it is hoped that nanoshells with absorption peaks in the near−infrared can be attached to cancerous cells. In this paper, we study the changes of optical response in visible and near infrared wavelengths from single to randomly distributed clusters of nanoshells. The results were obtained using a novel formulation of Mie theory in evanescent wave conditions, with a finite−difference time−domain (FDTD) simulation and experimentally on BaTiO