  We study the spectrum of vibrational modes in metal nanoparticles with a
dielectric core. Vibrational modes are excited by the rapid heating of the
particle lattice that takes place after laser excitation, and can be monitored
by means of pump-probe spectroscopy as coherent oscillations of transient
optical spectra. In nanoshells, the presence of two metal surfaces results in a
substantially different energy spectrum of acoustic vibrations than for solid
particles. We calculated the energy spectrum as well as the damping of
nanoshell vibrational modes. The oscillator strength of fundamental breathing
mode is larger than that in solid nanoparticles. At the same time, in very thin
nanoshells, the fundamental mode is overdamped due to instantaneous energy
transfer to the surrounding medium.
