Theoretical study of heating of spherical nanoparticle in media by short laser pulses

Theoretical investigation is made of heating of a small solid (metal) spherical particle in a liquid or gaseous medium on exposure to intense laser radiation pulse. The solutions are obtained for quasi-stationary distributions of temperature inside and around of a particle and conductive heat transfer between the particle and the surrounding medium with allowance for the temperature dependence of the transfer coefficients. The heating of spherical nanoparticle in medium on exposure to laser radiation pulse and following cooling is considered on the base of analytical solutions. The time dependencies of particle temperature are obtained. Comparison of some predicted results of the heating of gold spherical nanoparticle in liquid media with experimental data is given and agreement of theoretical results with experimental data validates the model and theory developed. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.