Efficient Dual-Modal NIR-to-NIR Emission of Rare Earth Ions Co-doped Nanocrystals for Biological Fluorescence Imaging.
A novel approach has been developed for the realization of efficient near-infrared to near-infrared (NIR-to-NIR) upconversion and down-shifting emission in nanophosphors. The efficient dual-modal NIR-to-NIR emission is realized in a β-NaGdF4/Nd(3+)@NaGdF4/Tm(3+)-Yb(3+) core-shell nanocrystal by careful control of the identity and concentration of the doped rare earth (RE) ion species and by manipulation of the spatial distributions of these RE ions. The photoluminescence results reveal that the emission efficiency increases at least 2-fold when comparing the materials synthesized in this study with those synthesized through traditional approaches. Hence, these core-shell structured nanocrystals with novel excitation and emission behaviors enable us to obtain tissue fluorescence imaging by detecting the upconverted and down-shifted photoluminescence from Tm(3+) and Nd(3+) ions, respectively. The reported approach thus provides a new route for the realization of high-yield emission from RE ion doped nanocrystals, which could prove to be useful for the design of optical materials containing other optically active centers.
†State Key Laboratory of Silicon Materials, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China.|‡World Premier International Research Center Initiative for Materials Nanoarchitronics (MANA), National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), 1-1 Namiki, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0044, Japan.
Jiajia
J
Zhou
‡World Premier International Research Center Initiative for Materials Nanoarchitronics (MANA), National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), 1-1 Namiki, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0044, Japan.|§PRESTO, Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), 4-1-8 Honcho Kawaguchi, Saitama 332-0012, Japan.
Naoto
N
Shirahata
¶Division of Materials Science and Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 060-8628, Japan.
Hong-Tao
HT
Sun
‡World Premier International Research Center Initiative for Materials Nanoarchitronics (MANA), National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), 1-1 Namiki, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0044, Japan.
Batu
B
Ghosh
⊥National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), 1-2-1 Sengen, Tsukuba-city, Ibaraki 305-0047, Japan.|∥Graduate School of Pure and Science and Applied Science, The University of Tsukuba, 1-1-1 Tennodai, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8577, Japan.
Makoto
M
Ogawara
†State Key Laboratory of Silicon Materials, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China.
Yu
Y
Teng
†State Key Laboratory of Silicon Materials, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China.
Shifeng
S
Zhou
ΔDepartment of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Kobe University, Kobe 657-8501, Japan.
Rong Gui
RG
Sa Chu
ΔDepartment of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Kobe University, Kobe 657-8501, Japan.
Minoru
M
Fujii
†State Key Laboratory of Silicon Materials, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China.|#State Key Laboratory of Luminescent Materials and Devices, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, China.
Jianrong
J
Qiu
NIR-to-NIR; bioimaging; dual-mode; nanocrystals; rare earth ions