Gold nanoparticle ensembles as heaters and actuators: melting and collective plasmon resonances

Abstract We describe the peculiar conditions under which optically driven gold nanoparticles (NPs) can significantly increase temperature or even melt a surrounding matrix. The heating and melting processes occur under light illumination and involve the plasmon resonance. For the matrix, we consider water, ice, and polymer. Melting and heating the matrix becomes possible if a nanoparticle size is large enough. Significant enhancement of the heating effect can appear in ensembles of NPs due to an increase of a volume of metal and electric-field amplification.