5234 J. Phys. Chem. B, Vol. 108, No. 17, 2004
Maillard et al.
particle size and shape and the role of different solvents.
Knowledge of the thermal relaxation in different solvents would
help to understand the laser-induced shape transformations
observed for metal nanoparticles.
Conclusions
Silver nanodisks have been studied by static and ultrafasttime-
resolved pump-probe spectroscopy. The particles exhibit
several surface plasmon resonances related to the particle shape.
By time-resolved spectroscopy a large increase of the bleach
intensity at long delay times (>20 ps) after femtosecond laser
excitation has been observed. This effect is likely to be due to
a thermal lensing phenomenon induced by the fast heat transfer
from the particle to its medium and a strong temperature
dependence of the medium refractive index. This thermal lensing
focuses the monitoring beam resulting in a decrease in the
absorption (i.e., increase in the bleach) intensity.
Figure 4. 4. Variation of the temperature at a distance r ) 100 nm
from a particle of diameter D ) 2R ) 20 nm for different initial electron
temperatures, between ∆T ) 500 and 900 K. An exponential fit to the
calculated temperature dependence shows that the temperature increases
Acknowledgment. We thank the support of the National
Science Foundation (grant No. INT-0129263)sCNRS for an
international cooperative grant.
-
t/τ
2
according to 1 - e
with τ ) 35 ps in qualitative agreement with
2
the experimental results.
-
20
where m ) 2.58 × 10
kg is the particle mass and cp ) 232
References and Notes
-
1
-1
J kg
K
is the specific heat capacity of silver. The distance
(
(
1) Jana, N. R.; Gearheart, L.; Murphy, C. J. Langmuir 2001, 17, 6782.
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from the surface has been chosen as r ) 100 nm because it
corresponds to a sphere of diameter D ) λ/2. For shorter
distances, the temperature rise is more important but the
characteristic size is below the diffraction limit. On the opposite,
at longer distance, the temperature quickly decreases and
contributes less to the signal.
Figure 4 represents the calculated temperature as a function
of time for a 20 nm sphere, at a distance of 100 nm from the
surface.
The initial temperatures are related to the experimental pump
intensities as estimated above. The temperature increases
exponentially and can be modeled by 1 - e
constant τ2 ) 35 ps, which is close to the experimental one τ2
40 ps. In qualitative agreement with the experimental results,
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t/τ
2
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(
)
this time constant is found to be independent of the initial
electronic temperature rise inside the nanoparticle.
(
(
The thermal lens effect (as well as a possible volume
expansion) is most likely enhanced by the presence of spheres.
The spheres absorb only above 450 nm but also contribute to
the temperature increase of the solvent because they have a
strong absorption at the wavelength of the pump pulse. This
might explain why the short time signal, related to the disks
only, is weaker than the long time one related to both shapes.
Because of the thermal lens created, the bleach does not
depend on the probe wavelength and the plasmon resonance
position. This is clearly observed in Figure 2B where the
transient absorption spectrum exhibits a bleach proportional to
the absorption. The rise time for the bleach at longer delay times
therefore corresponds to the heat transfer between the hot metal
nanoparticles and the surrounding medium, as observed through
the thermal lens effect. The thermal lens is enhanced in the
organic solvent in the presence of AOT surfactant. Further
experiments are, however, necessary to elucidate the effect of
(
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(
(
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(25) R
(
(
-4
2
-1
-8
2
-1
1
K
) 1.75 × 10 m s , R2 ) 6.71 × 10 m s , k1 ) 428 J
s-
1
m
-1 -1
k2 ) 0.0967 J s
-1 -1 -1
m
K . Tabulated data taken from CRC
Handbook for silver and: Riddick, J. A.; Bunger, W. B.; Sakano, T. K. In
Organic solVents, Physical properties and Methods of Purification.
Techniques of Chemistry; J. Wiley: New York, Chichester, Brisbane, 1986
(for the solvent).