Investigations on the damping of acoustic vibrations of single gold nanoparticles in water by continuum and atomistic simulations

Y Gan and H Cai, MATERIALS TODAY COMMUNICATIONS, 34, 105314 (2023).

DOI: 10.1016/j.mtcomm.2023.105314

Ultrafast laser-excited acoustic vibrations of single gold nanorods and nanospheres in water and vacuum have been studied using the finite element and atomistic simulations, for the individual intrinsic and fluid damping rates of vibrations of nanoparticles. It is shown that the damping of the extensional vibration of gold nanorods in water mainly results from the dissipation by the water. For the breathing mode of gold nanorods and nanospheres in water, both fluid damping and intrinsic dissipation account for the damping of nanoparticles, with more significant fluid damping effect. Further simulations for gold nanorods with different truncated tips demonstrate that the damping of the breathing mode of nanorods is sensitive to the sizes of truncated rod tips, which could be one of mechanisms for the experimentally observed large particle-to-particle variations of breathing quality factors of gold nanorods.

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