Tailoring and shaping nanoparticles with laser light

Nanoparticles exhibit fascinating properties that depend on their size and shape. Therefore, these systems with reduced dimensions are not only highly interesting objects for basic research but also lend themselves naturally for the design and fabrication of a great variety of novel materials with tailormade characteristics. Examples for applications are electronic and optoelectronic components, catalytic processes and new nonlinear optical devices. Here, we present an overview of recent work with the objective of producing nanoparticles of well-defined dimensions, systems that are urgently needed to fully exploit the size and shape dependent properties. In particular, novel methods for tailoring and shaping nanoparticles by tunable pulsed laser radiation based on selective optical absorption will be described and their potential illustrated.