Emerging materials and methods in biomedical imaging and biophotonics are improving patient outcomes. More specifi cally, the utilization of biomedical diagnostics and therapeutic advances in methods such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), computed tomography (CT) imaging, photoacoustic tomography, photothermal optical coherence tomography, and targeted photothermal therapy (PTT) have been sh...

Nanotechnology (nano-materials and nano-process) has been developed for both industrial and medical applications. The use of nano-medicine has been used in bio-imaging and bio-sensing, drug delivery, cancer cell diagnostics and therapeutics [1,2]. Nanoparticles (NPs) can cause tumor cell death by photothermal ablation, photodynamic toxicity, mechanical damage, or increase in the localized drug ...

The development of nanomaterials that combine diagnostic and therapeutic functions within a single nanoplatform is extremely important for molecular medicine. Molecular imaging with simultaneous diagnosis and therapy will provide the multimodality needed for accurate diagnosis and targeted therapy. Here, we demonstrate gold-coated iron oxide (Fe3O4@Au) nanoroses with five distinct functions, wh...

A four-member homogenous quadrumer composed of silver core-shell nanostructures is tailored to enhance photothermal heat generation efficiency in sub-nanosecond time scale. Calculating the plasmonic and photothermal responses of metallic cluster, we show that it is possible to achieve thermal heat flux generation of 64.7 μW.cm-2 and temperature changes in the range of ΔT = 150 K, usi...

Gold nanorods, as an emerging noble metal nanomaterial with unique properties, have become the new exciting focus of theoretical and experimental studies in the past few years. The structure and function of gold nanorods, especially their biocompatibility, optical property, and photothermal effects, have been attracting more and more attention. Gold nanorods exhibit great potential in applicati...

We report on the mid-infrared nonlinear photothermal spectrum of the neat liquid crystal 4-octyl-4'-cyanobiphenyl (8CB) using a tunable Quantum Cascade Laser (QCL). The nonequilibrium steady state characterized by the nonlinear photothermal infrared response undergoes a supercritical bifurcation. The bifurcation, observed in heterodyne two-color pump-probe detection, leads to ultrasharp nonline...

The photothermal heterodyne imaging technique enables studies of individual weakly absorbing nano-objects in various environments. It uses a photoinduced change in the refractive index of the environment. Taking advantage of the dramatic index of refraction change occurring around a thermotropic liquid-crystalline phase transition, we demonstrate a 40-fold signal-to-noise ratio enhancement for ...

An interferometric optical fiber probe for making photothermal measurements of tissue optical and thermal properties is compared to pulsed photothermal radiometry in terms of its overall thermal sensitivity, linearity, and response time. The principles of operation of the probe are described and its performance as a low finesse Fabry–Perot interferometer is discussed. A probe with a 12 mm sensi...

Agents enabling tumor staging are valuable for cancer surgery. Herein, a targetable sialic acid-armed near-infrared profluorophore (SA-pNIR) is reported for fluorescence guided tumor detection. SA-pNIR consists of a sialic acid entity effective for in vivo tumor targeting and a profluorophore which undergoes lysosomal acidity-triggered fluorogenic isomerization. SA-pNIR displays a number of adv...

The photothermal effect of Fe3O4 magnetic nanoparticles is investigated for cancer therapy both in vitro and in vivo experiments. Heat is found to be rapidly generated by red and near-infrared (NIR) range laser irradiation of Fe3O4 nanoparticles with spherical, hexagonal and wire-like shapes. These Fe3O4 nanoparticles are coated with carboxyl-terminated poly (ethylene glycol)-phospholipid for e...