ABSTRACT
We present two methods to calibrate light-to-heat and light-to-light conversions in the nanocomposites incorporated with silver and gold nanoparticles. First method relies on the optical properties of cholesteric liquid crystals, confined into microdroplets dispersed in the medium, and combines the advantages of high spatial resolution and good temperature accuracy with fast readout. The method can be used for any nanoparticles, disregarding their size or shape, for instance silver or gold based. In the second method, we demonstrate that the emission of visible light from the polymer matrix doped with luminescent dye and gold nanoparticles can be enhanced with the use of surface plasmon coupling. The visualization and control of optical and thermal energy conversions in nanostructures are key challenges in many fields of science with applications in areas as molecular sensing, detection and visualization cancer cells at the early stage of development, and photothermal cancer therapy.
