Reversible photo- and thermal-effects on the luminescence of gold nanoclusters: implications for nanothermometry.

The optical properties of colloidal near-infrared (NIR) emitting gold nanoclusters (AuNCs) are thoroughly investigated at variable temperatures and excitation powers. Both absorption and photoluminescence (PL) excitation spectra reveal optical transitions expected from literature models of thiolated AuNCs - with the exception of the lowest energy transition which has the form of a featureless absorption tail partially overlapping with the PL band. The absorption cross section is determined via the PL saturation and PL modulation techniques to be in the range of 2-3 × 10