Spectral dependence of selective photomodification in fractal aggregates of colloidal particles

Localization of optical excitations and selective photomodification are studied experimentally in fractal aggregates of silver colloidal nanoparticles. The localized optical excitations of the fractal colloids cover a broad spectral range, from the visible to the infrared. We show that the absorbed laser energy is localized In an increasingly smaller number of particles with increasing the laser wavelength from 355 to 1900 nm. The size of the photomodified regions can be as small as 20 nm. The observed modification is explained by optically induced sintering (coalescence) of colloidal nanoparticles. [S0031-9007(97)05209-5].