The potential use of the enhanced nonlinear properties of gold nanospheres in photothermal cancer therapy

Abstract

The energy threshold and selectivity of PTT can greatly benefit from the use of the plasmonic enhanced nonlinear optical processes of spherical gold nanoparticles conjugated to anti-EGFR antibodies. The quadratic dependence of the photothermal efficiency on the pulsed NIR laser power indicates a second harmonic generation or a two photon absorption process. The observed nonlinear dependence on the gold nanoparticle concentration suggests that aggregated nanospheres are responsible for the observed enhanced photothermal destruction of the cells.