Electron-phonon effects on the photoacoustic response of gold core-silica shell nanoparticles: From the linear regime to nanocavitation.

Coating gold nanostructures with a silica shell has been long considered for biomedical applications, including photoacoustic imaging. Recent experimental and modeling investigations reported contradicting results concerning the effect of coating on the photoacoustic response of gold nanostructures. Enhanced photoacoustic response is generally attributed to facilitated heat transfer at the gold/silica/water system. Here, we examine the photoacoustic response of gold core-silica shell nanoparticles immersed in water using a combination of the two temperature model and hydrodynamic phase field simulations. Here, of particular interest is the role of the interfacial coupling between the gold electrons and silica shell phonons. We demonstrate that as compared to uncoated nanoparticles, photoacoustic response is enhanced for very thin silica shells (5 nm) and short laser pulses, but for thicker coatings, the photoacoustic performance are generally deteriorated. We extend the study to the regime of nanocavitation and show that the generation of nanobubbles may also play a role in the enhanced acoustic response of core-shell nanoparticles. Our modeling effort may serve as guides for the optimization of the photoacoustic response of heterogeneous metal-dielectric nanoparticles.