@article {1150,
	title = {Calculated absorption and scattering properties of gold nanoparticles of different size, shape, and composition: Applications in biological imaging and biomedicine},
	journal = {Journal of Physical Chemistry B},
	volume = {110},
	number = {14},
	year = {2006},
	note = {Jain, PK Lee, KS El-Sayed, IH El-Sayed, MA},
	month = {Apr},
	pages = {7238-7248},
	abstract = {The selection of nanoparticles for achieving efficient contrast for biological and cell imaging applications, as well as for photothermal therapeutic applications, is based on the optical properties of the nanoparticles. We use Mie theory and discrete dipole approximation method to calculate absorption and scattering efficiencies and optical resonance wavelengths for three commonly used classes of nanoparticles: gold nanospheres, silica-gold nanoshells, and gold nanorods. The calculated spectra clearly reflect the well-known dependence of nanoparticle optical properties viz. the resonance wavelength, the extinction cross-section, and the ratio of scattering to absorption, on the nanoparticle dimensions. A systematic quantitative study of the various trends is presented. By increasing the size of gold nanospheres from 20 to 80 nm, the magnitude of extinction as well as the relative contribution of scattering to the extinction rapidly increases. Gold nanospheres in the size range commonly employed (similar to 40 nm) show an absorption cross-section 5 orders higher than conventional absorbing dyes, while the magnitude of light scattering by 80-nm gold nanospheres is 5 orders higher than the light emission from strongly fluorescing dyes. The variation in the plasmon wavelength maximum of nanospheres, i.e., from similar to 520 to 550 nm, is however too limited to be useful for in vivo applications. Gold nanoshells are found to have optical cross-sections comparable to and even higher than the nanospheres. Additionally, their optical resonances lie favorably in the near-infrared region. The resonance wavelength can be rapidly increased by either increasing the total nanoshell size or increasing the ratio of the core-to-shell radius. The total extinction of nanoshells shows a linear dependence on their total size, however, it is independent of the core/shell radius ratio. The relative scattering contribution to the extinction can be rapidly increased by increasing the nanoshell size or decreasing the ratio of the core/shell radius. Gold nanorods show optical cross-sections comparable to nanospheres and nanoshells, however, at much smaller effective size. Their optical resonance can be linearly tuned across the near-infrared region by changing either the effective size or the aspect ratio of the nanorods. The total extinction as well as the relative scattering contribution increases rapidly with the effective size, however, they are independent of the aspect ratio. To compare the effectiveness of nanoparticles of different sizes for real biomedical applications, size-normalized optical cross-sections or per micron coefficients are calculated. Gold nanorods show per micron absorption and scattering coefficients that are an order of magnitude higher than those for nanoshells and nanospheres. While nanorods with a higher aspect ratio along, with a smaller effective radius are the best photoabsorbing nanoparticles, the highest scattering contrast for imaging applications is obtained from nanorods of high aspect ratio with a larger effective radius.},
	isbn = {1520-6106},
	doi = {10.1021/jp057170o},
	author = {Jain, Prashant K and Lee, K. S. and El Sayed, I.H. and El-Sayed, Mostafa A}
}
@article {1147,
	title = {Gold and silver nanoparticles in sensing and imaging: Sensitivity of plasmon response to size, shape, and metal composition},
	journal = {Journal of Physical Chemistry B},
	volume = {110},
	number = {39},
	year = {2006},
	note = {Lee, Kyeong-Seok El-Sayed, Mostafa A.},
	month = {Oct},
	pages = {19220-19225},
	abstract = {Plasmonic metal nanoparticles have great potential for chemical and biological sensor applications, due to their sensitive spectral response to the local environment of the nanoparticle surface and ease of monitoring the light signal due to their strong scattering or absorption. In this work, we investigated the dependence of the sensitivity of the surface plasmon resonance (frequency and bandwidth) response to changes in their surrounding environment and the relative contribution of optical scattering to the total extinction, on the size and shape of nanorods and the type of metal, that is, Au vs Ag. Theoretical consideration on the surface plasmon resonance condition revealed that the spectral sensitivity, defined as the relative shift in resonance wavelength with respect to the refractive index change of surrounding materials, has two controlling factors: first the bulk plasma wavelength, a property dependent on the metal type, and second on the aspect ratio of the nanorods which is a geometrical parameter. It is found that the sensitivity is linearly proportional to both these factors. To quantitatively examine the dependence of the spectral sensitivity on the nanorod metal composition and the aspect ratio, the discrete dipole approximation method was used for the calculation of optical spectra of Ag-Au alloy metal nanorods as a function of Ag concentration. It is observed that the sensitivity does not depend on the type of the metal but depends largely on the aspect ratio of nanorods. The direct dependence of the sensitivity on the aspect ratio becomes more prominent as the size of nanorods becomes larger. However, the use of larger nanoparticles may induce an excessive broadening of the resonance spectrum due to an increase in the contribution of multipolar excitations. This restricts the sensing resolution. The insensitivity of the plasmon response to the metal composition is attributable to the fact that the bulk plasma frequency of the metal, which determines the spectral dispersion of the real dielectric function of metals and the surface plasmon resonance condition, has a similar value for the noble metals. On the other hand, nanorods with higher Ag concentration show a great enhancement in magnitude and sharpness of the plasmon resonance band, which gives better sensing resolution despite similar plasmon response. Furthermore, Ag nanorods have an additional advantage as better scatterers compared with Au nanorods of the same size.},
	isbn = {1520-6106},
	doi = {10.1021/jp062536y},
	author = {Lee, K. S. and El-Sayed, Mostafa A}
}
@article {1168,
	title = {Dependence of the enhanced optical scattering efficiency relative to that of absorption for gold metal nanorods on aspect ratio, size, end-cap shape, and medium refractive index},
	journal = {Journal of Physical Chemistry B},
	volume = {109},
	number = {43},
	year = {2005},
	note = {Lee, KS El-Sayed, MA},
	month = {Nov},
	pages = {20331-20338},
	abstract = {The Current intense interest in the properties of plasmonic nanostructures for their applications in chemical and biochemical sensors, medical diagnostics and therapeutics, and biological imaging is fundamentally based on their enhanced optical absorption and scattering properties. In this study, the optical extinction, absorption, and scattering efficiencies were calculated as a function of shape definition, aspect ratio, surrounding medium, and material selection. The discrete dipole approximation method was used, which is known to be a very useful and versatile cornputational too] for particles with any arbitrary shape. Relative contribution of scattering to the total extinction for the longitudinal mode was found to be significantly dependent on the aspect ratio of the nanorod in a somewhat complex manner, different from a typical linear relationship for the resonance wavelength. A slight elongation of An nanosphere gives rise to a drastic increase in the relative scattering efficiency, which eventually reaches a maximum and begins to decrease with further increase in the aspect ratio. This is ascribed to the increasing absorptive contribution from the larger imaginary dielectric function of the metal particle in the longer wavelength region where the red-shifted excitation of the longitudinal resonance mode Occurs. For transverse mode exhibiting the blue-shift in the resonance peak, on the contrary, the absorption efficiency is relatively enhanced compared to the scattering efficiency with increasing aspect ratio. This is thought to result from the dominant effect of the interband transition present in this wavelength re-ion. Besides the dependence of plasmonic characteristics on the aspect ratio of nanorod, the DDA results for a small change of the end-cap shape and the index of the surrounding medium lead us to conclude that there exist two competing key factors: a weighting factor assigned to the shape parameter and the dielectric function of the metal particle, which control the relative enhancement in the scattering and absorption as well as the linearity of resonance wavelength with regard to the aspect ratio.},
	isbn = {1520-6106},
	doi = {10.1021/jp054385p},
	author = {Lee, K. S. and El-Sayed, Mostafa A}
}
