Mechanistic Understanding of DNA Denaturation in Nanoscale Thermal Gradients Created by Femtosecond Excitation of Gold Nanoparticles.There is significant interest in developing photothermal systems that can precisely control the structure and function of biomolecules through local temperature modulation.  Furthermore, molecular dynamics simulations mimicking the photothermal heat pulse around a AuNP provide mechanistic insight into the stochastic nature of dehybridization and demonstrate increased base pair separation near the AuNP surface during laser pulse heating when compared to steady-state heating. 
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