Thousand-Fold Enhancement of Photothermal Signals in Near-Critical CO2

Photothermal (PT) microscopy has shown strong promise in imaging single absorbing nano-objects in soft matter and biological systems. PT imaging at ambient conditions usually requires a high laser power for a sensitive detection, which prevents application to light-sensitive nanoparticles. In a previous study of single gold nanoparticles, we showed that the photothermal signal can be enhanced more than 1000-fold in near-critical xenon compared to that in glycerol, a typical medium for PT detection. In this report, we show that carbon dioxide (CO2), a much cheaper gas than xenon, can enhance PT signals in a similar way. We confine near-critical CO2 in a thin capillary which easily withstands the high near-critical pressure (around 74 bar) and facilitates sample preparation. We also demonstrate enhancement of the magnetic circular dichroism signal of single magnetite nanoparticle clusters in supercritical CO2. We have performed COMSOL simulations to support and explain our experimental findings.

Automated summary

Photothermal (PT) microscopy has great potential in imaging single absorbing nano-objects in soft matter and biological systems. In this study, we showed that the photothermal signal can be significantly enhanced by near-critical CO2, a cheaper alternative to xenon. The use of thin capillaries and COMSOL simulations further supported our experimental findings.