Core-shell nanoparticles with self-regulating plasmonic functionality

We propose a smart nanoparticle, a ``regulatron,'' that exploits a cycle of dynamic plasmonic feedback to self-regulate its temperature to a fixed range. One kind of regulatron can be conceived from VO₂ and Au; the temperature of this particle when illuminated by laser irradiation of suitable intensities and wavelengths is ~3400.3em0exK. We expect that regulatrons of this and other compositions will be useful in applications such as photothermal medical therapeutics.