FIGURE 5.

TEM images of S. aureus conjugated with gold nanoparticles before (a) and after (b–e) multilaser exposure of 100 pulses, wavelength of 532 nm, and pulse duration of 12 ns at a different conditions (see text): laser fluence of 0.5 J/cm² and no clusters (b); laser fluence of 0.5 J/cm² with clustered nanoparticles (c); and laser fluence of 3 J/cm² at one (d) and several (e) nanocluster numbers. A dashed line represents the bacterial boundary in e. Arrows in b and c indicate penetration of nanoparticles into the wall, and in d, arrows indicate local cell-wall damage.