Optical control of the coherent acoustic vibration of metal nanoparticles

Optical control of the coherent breathing vibrations of silver nanospheres is demonstrated using a high-sensitivity femtosecond pump-probe technique in a double-pump pulse configuration. Oscillation of the fundamental mode that usually dominates the time-domain vibrational response can thus be stopped, permitting observation of the first order radial mode and determination of its properties. These are found to be in agreement with the predictions of the model of an elastic sphere embedded in an elastic matrix.