Hybrid Silicon-Gold Nanoparticles for Optical Heating and Simultaneous Temperature Monitoring in Cells

Optically induced hyperthermia is an actively developing approach to treating cancer. All-dielectric nanoparticles have established themselves in different biomedical applications, including optical heating and nanothermometry. However, this type of nanoparticles (NPs) do not provide sufficient heating due to the necessity for a narrow size distribution. Thus, size-separation is required. Other method of negating disadvantages of all-dielectric NPs is incorporating plasmonic nanoparticles to create hybrid nanostructure, which would be less sensitive to size distribution, making it great nanoheater and nanothermometer. In this work, we propose a simple way of fabricating hybrid silicon-gold (Si-Au) NPs. We compare hybrid nanoparticles with pristine monodisperse Si NPs. In addition, we perform optical heating and simultaneous nanothermometry inside and outside living B16-F10 melanoma cells. Results reveal, that the hybrid NPs are more efficient in biological environments, since inhomogeneous medium can make it difficult to fulfill the critical coupling conditions.