Possibilities of the control of the size and size distribution of the colloidal gold particles produced by the 110-fs laser ablation from a gold plate in aqueous environment are studied. Compared to pure deionized water, significant reduction of the mean size and size dispersion of the produced particles was observed when the ablation was performed in aqueous solutions of cyclodextrins (CDs), while the efficiency of the size reduction depended on the concentration and type of the CD (α-CD, β-CD or γ-CD). In particular, ablation at 10 mM of β-CD led to a production of 2-2.4 nm particles with narrow size distribution of less than 1-1.5 FWHM, which were very stable under aerobic conditions without any protective agent present. In the UV-vis spectrum, the gold nanoparticles exhibited an absorption band at 520 nm due to the generation of plasmon resonances. The fabricated particles are of importance for biosensing applications.

Date Published: 17 October 2003
PDF: 6 pages
Proc. SPIE 4977, Photon Processing in Microelectronics and Photonics II, (17 October 2003); doi: 10.1117/12.478575

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 4977:
Photon Processing in Microelectronics and Photonics II
Alberto Piqué; David B. Geohegan; Friedrich G. Bachmann; Koji Sugioka; Frank Träger; Jan J. Dubowski; Peter R. Herman; Willem Hoving; Kouichi Murakami; Kunihiko Washio; Jim Fieret, Editor(s)