Core-shell nanoparticles with self-regulating plasmonic functionality

We propose a smart nanoparticle, a regulatron, that exploits a cycle of dynamic plasmonic feedback to self-regulate its temperature to a fixed range. One kind of regulatron can be conceived from VO2 and Au; the temperature of this particle when illuminated by laser irradiation of suitable intensities and wavelengths is similar to 340 K. We expect that regulatrons of this and other compositions will be useful in applications such as photothermal medical therapeutics.