Femtosecond laser ablation in aqueous solutions: a novel method to synthesize non-toxic metal colloids with controllable size

We review results of the femtosecond laser ablation of noble metals in pure water to synthesize colloidal nanoparticles. We show that such ablation leads to the formation of two different populations of nanoparticles (low and highly size-dispersed ones), while their mean size and relative contribution are strongly affected by the intensity of pumping radiation. Analyses of ablation craters on the target surface enables to relate the appearance of these populations to photonand plasma-induced ablation mechanisms, respectively. The nanoparticles produced are of importance for biological sensing and imaging applications.