Enhanced photothermal therapy assisted with gold nanorods using a radially polarized beam

摘要

We report on the use of a radially polarized beam for photothermal therapy of cancer cells labelednwith gold nanorods. Due to a three-dimensionally distributed electromagnetic field in the focalnvolume, the radially polarized beam is proven to be a highly efficient laser mode to excite goldnnanorods randomly oriented in cancer cells. As a result, the energy fluence for effective cancer cellndamage is reduced to one fifth of that required for a linearly polarized beam, which is only 9.3% ofnthe medical safety level. © 2010 American Institute of Physics.