Ram Rajagopal: Unraveling Plasmon-Enhanced Reactive Oxygen Species Generation through Ultrafast Light

The interaction of ultrafast light with gold nanorods (AuNRs) can lead to various non-linear effects such as nanobubbles, shockwaves, plasma, reactive oxygen species (ROS), and photothermal effects. Gold nanorods have localized surface plasmon resonances (LSPRs) that can be tuned to match excitation sources in the visible and NIR. Such resonant interactions with ultra-fast light have been utilized to inactivate or lyse virnses, bacteria, and cancer cells. However, the mechanisms responsible for these effects need to be better understood and disentangled for the development and optimization of safe and effective therapeutics. I show that a rhodamine B degradation assay can be utilized to study ROS generation of gold nanorods upon irradiation by ultra-fast light, and study how ROS generation is affected by fluence, nanorod size, surface functionalization, and other parameters1