Photoactivation of Luminescent Centers in Single SiO2 Nanoparticles

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• 作者：Luigi Tarpani ; Daja Ruhlandt ; Loredana Latterini ; Dirk Haehnel ; Ingo Gregor ; Jörg Enderlein ; Alexey I. Chizhik
• 刊名：Nano Letters
• 出版年：2016
• 出版时间：July 13, 2016
• 年：2016
• 卷：16
• 期：7
• 页码：4312-4316
• 全文大小：386K
• 年卷期：0
• ISSN：1530-6992

文摘

Photobleaching of fluorophores is one of the key problems in fluorescence microscopy. Overcoming the limitation of the maximum number of photons, which can be detected from a single emitter, would allow one to enhance the signal-to-noise ratio and thus the temporal and spatial resolution in fluorescence imaging. It would be a breakthrough for many applications of fluorescence spectroscopy, which are unachievable up to now. So far, the only approach for diminishing the effect of photobleaching has been to enhance the photostability of an emitter. Here, we present a fundamentally new solution for increasing the number of photons emitted by a fluorophore. We show that, by exposing a single SiO₂ nanoparticle to UV illumination, one can create new luminescent centers within this particle. By analogy with nanodiamonds, SiO₂ nanoparticles can possess luminescent defects in their regular SiO₂ structure. However, due to the much weaker chemical bonds, it is possible to generate new defects in SiO₂ nanostructures using UV light. This allows for the reactivation of the nanoparticle’s fluorescence after its photobleaching.