Gold nanoparticle growth monitored in situ using a novel fast optical single-particle spectroscopy method

Size- and shape-dependent optical properties of gold nanorods allow monitoring their growth using a novel fast single-particle spectroscopy (fastSPS) method. FastSPS uses a spatially addressable electronic shutter based on a liquid crystal device to investigate particles randomly deposited on a substrate, orders of magnitude faster than other techniques. We use fastSPS to observe nanoparticle growth in situ on a single-particle level and extract quantitative data on nanoparticle growth.