Plasmon nanoparticle-generated photothermal bubbles as universal biomedical agents

We report the concept and preliminary experimental evaluation of the new biomedical optical agent, whose properties provide tunable effect from non-invasive sensing to selective mechanical damage at nano-scale and in living tissues and cells. Such agent uses the energy of light and heat at nanoscale as the plasmonic nanoparticle-generated photothermal vapor bubble (PTB). PTB of nano-size acts as optical probe by scattering the light and as therapeutic agent by local disruptive mechanical impact. We report cell level studies of the PTBs that have proved more than 1000 fold amplification of optical scattering by the PTBs without the damage to host cells and selective damage to target cells by the bigger PTBs though without collateral damage.