Figure 3.

The calculated time-course of the temperature of gold 60 nm spheres in water (solid line) during the absorption of a single laser pulse at 780 nm with a Gaussian temporal profile (dashed line) with the fluence of 66 mJ cm⁻², (A) the duration of 70 ps and (B) 400 ps. The horizontal dotted line shows a temperature threshold of NP surface melting. The solid vertical line indicates the potential onset of the transient structure and the dashed vertical line indicates the onset of the vapor nanobubble. Arrows show the temporal window for the transient nanostructure. Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) images of 60 nm gold spheres before (C) and after exposure to single laser pulses (70 ps, 66 mJ cm⁻²) at 532 nm (D) and 780 nm (E); (F): comparison of the nanobubble lifetime in water suspensions of 60 nm NPs under excitation at 66 mJ cm⁻² with 70 ps (solid bars) and 400 ps (hollow bars) laser pulses at resonant (532 nm) and off-resonant (780 nm) wavelengths.