CC BY
12LP-O-3
Fabrication of plasmonic titanium nitride nanoparticles by femtosecond laser ablation in water and organic solvents
A. Popov1, G. Tselikov2, A. Al-Kattan2, N. Dumas3, C. Berard3,4, J. Nicola5, A. Da Silva6, D. Braguer3,4, M.A. Estève3,4, A. Kabashin1,2
1MEPhI, Institute of Engineering Physics for Biomedicine PhysBio-Bio-nanophotonics Laboratory, Moscow, Russian Federation
2Aix-Marseille University, CNRS, LP3 laboratory, Marseille, France 3Aix-Marseille University, CNRS, INP- Inst. Neurophysiopathol., Marseille, France 4Assistance Publique - Hôpitaux de Marseille, Hôpital Timone, Marseille, France 5Aix-Marseille University, CNRS, Centrale Marseille, LMA, Marseille, France 6Aix-Marseille University, CNRS, Centrale Marseille, Institut Fresnel, Marseille, France
Exhibiting a red-shifted absorption/scattering feature compared to conventional plasmonic metals, titanium nitride nanoparticles (TiN NPs) look as very promising candidates for biomedical applications, but these applications are still underexplored despite the presence of extensive data for conventional plasmonic counterparts. Here, we present the fabrication of ultrapure, size-tunable crystalline TiN NPs by methods of femtosecond laser ablation in liquids. We demonstrate the possibility to tune size of NPs between 5 and 40 nm by varying laser fluence and ablation strategies. We show that so prepared TiN NPs demonstrate strong and broad plasmonic peak around 640-700 nm with a significant tail over 800 nm even for small NPs sizes (<7 nm), which is a very important fact, since this band lies within the region of relative tissue transparency, therefore laser-synthesized TiN NPs promise the advancement of biomedical modalities employing plasmonic effects, including absorption/scattering contrast imaging, photothermal therapy and photoacoustic imaging.
