Although there are numerous ways reported to induce the growth of nanoparticles with light, very little is known about the role of polarization. Most of the experiments reported so far were done with nanoparticles in suspension, where only average information can be obtained and the role of the polarization of light is impossible to address.
In our recent publication in Nano Letters, we use optical printing to fabricate arrays of gold nanoparticles which were subsequently subjected to photochemical growth one by one, with controlled intensity and polarization. This approach allowed us to study changes in the morphology of individual nanoparticles taking into account the direction of polarization.
Remarkably, spherical gold nanoparticles with a diameter of 60 nm were transformed one by one into larger NPs elongated along the direction of light polarization. This is the first clear demonstration that the outcome of a surface photochemical reaction can be directed by light polarization!
Nano Letters 16 (2016) 6529 – 6533
“Light-Induced Polarization-Directed Growth of Optically Printed Gold Nanoparticles”
Ianina L. Violi, Julián Gargiulo, Catalina von Bilderling, Emiliano Cortés, and Fernando D. Stefani
