Photothermal Metastructure Platforms toward Precision Biomedical Applications

Plasmonic nanostructures show outstanding promise in allowing sensitive temperature control, due to their natural ability to strongly confine a nanoscale electric field and release heat. In this chapter, the evolution of thermoresponsive metastructures is described from their introduction as amorphous arrangements of homogeneously distributed gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) to their fine improvement through the design and experimental characterization of specific distributions of thermal hot spots. Thermoplasmonic metastructures actuated by optical and mechanical stimuli have been numerically designed and experimentally realized. Quite significant is the experimental realization and characterization of arrays of functionalized nanoheaters with optimized “flower” geometry showing a significant thermal response upon laser excitation.