Plasmonic Nanoparticle Photothermal Heating

Gold nanoparticles convert absorbed light into heat with striking efficiency near their localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) — the collective oscillation of conduction electrons driven by the incident field. This simulator computes that resonance from a Drude model of gold's dielectric function combined with Gans theory for prolate spheroids, then applies the steady-state photothermal heat-conduction law to render the actual temperature rise at each particle's surface and the 1/r thermal halo it produces in the surrounding medium. Tune the laser wavelength, particle radius, rod aspect ratio and irradiance to see the absorption spectrum shift and the heating response follow it in real time — the same size/shape tuning used to push gold nanorods into the near-infrared for photothermal cancer therapy and biosensing.