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Thermal microscopy in plasmonic using wavefront sensing. Applications in physics, chemistry and cell biology

par Guillaume Baffou, Institut Fresnel, Marseille

Mardi 1er Décembre, 14h, Salle des séminaires, 3ème étage, Batiment A4

 

The use of gold nanoparticle as nanosources of heat is now at the basis of a well-established area of research, termed thermoplasmonics.
So far, the most famous practical developments have been related to biomedical applications (cancer therapy, drug release, nanosurgery, etc). One of the major limitation that the field is currently facing is the difficulty to reliably measure the local temperature increase in plasmonic systems, a vital information to carry out new investigations in a wider range of applications.
In this presentation, I will first introduce a thermal microscopy technique that we recently developed. This technique, based on optical wavefront sensing measurements, cumulates all the advantages required for plasmonics investigations. In particular, it label-free, it features a sub-micrometric spatial resolution, a 1 K temperature sensitivity, a frame rate of 1 Hz and it is simple to implement. Then, I will detail most of the achievements that this technique enabled us to conduct these last years using plasmonic nanoparticles, namely the studies of phase transition (bubble formation), microscale fluid convection, fluid superheating, microscale temperature shaping at will, nanochemistry and thermal biology at the single cell level.