Depolarized light scattering from colloidal gold nanoparticles

We present a study of depolarized light scattering from gold nanoparticles of various shapes and heterodispersity in aqueous solutions. The light scattering anisotropy for particles with average aspect ratio ∼1.2 and above 1.5 was measured experimentally and modelled theoretically. For elongated particles the anisotropy reaches the minimum value of about 0.5 in the spectral region 550–750 nm and its position corresponds to the maximum of the scattering component in the extinction spectra. Our work demonstrates the potential to distinguish plasmonic scattering from gold nanoparticles from the background Rayleigh scattering that is important for applications in sensing and imaging in turbid media.