Thermoplasmonics: Heating Metal Nanoparticles Using Light

Description

Plasmonics is an important branch of optics concerned with the interaction of metals with light. Under appropriate illumination, metal nanoparticles can exhibit enhanced light absorption, becoming nanosources of heat that can be precisely controlled. This book provides an overview of the exciting new field of thermoplasmonics and a detailed discussion of its theoretical underpinning in nanophotonics. This topic has developed rapidly in the last decade, and is now a highly-active area of research due to countless applications in nanoengineering and nanomedicine. These important applications include photothermal cancer therapy, drug and gene delivery, nanochemistry and photothermal imaging. This timely and self-contained text is suited to all researchers and graduate students working in plasmonics, nano-optics and thermal-induced processes at the nanoscale.

Guillaume Baffou is a Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) Research Scientist at the Institut Fresnel in Marseille. His research is focused on the interface between nano-optics and small-scale thermal effects. Specifically, he has been investigating the interaction between light and plasmonic metal nanoparticles, and the resulting applications in physics, chemistry and biology. In 2015 he was awarded the bronze medal of the CNRS in recognition of his important contributions to the field.

'This book, the first in the subject area, guides the reader through basic concepts and then develops the subject with sample applications in drug and gene therapy, heat-assisted magnetic recording and photo-acoustic imaging, to name but three. The book is directed at readers from a range of backgrounds including physics, chemistry and biology. The author has been instrumental in developing this field and hence is able to identify accurately and explain clearly the key aspects of the subject. Readers of this book will be fully equipped to enter this field of activity and contribute to its growth. Indeed, perhaps anticipating future contributions from its readers, the author already talks of the likely need for a second edition of this book in the preface.' K. Alan Shore, Optics & Photonics News