Versatile Spectral and Lifetime Multiplexing Nanoplatform with Excitation Orthogonalized Upconversion Luminescence

Abstract

Optical encoding together with color multiplexing benefits on-site detection, and enriching the components with narrow emissions from lanthanide could greatly increase the coding density. Here, we show a typical example to combine emission color and lifetime that are simultaneously integrated in a single lanthanide nanoparticle. With the multicompartment core/shell structure, the nanoparticles can activate different emitting pathways under varied excitation. This enables the nanoparticles to generate versatile excitation orthogonalized upconversion luminescence in both emission colors and lifetimes. As a typical example, green emission of Er3+ and blue emission of Tm3+ can be triggered with 808 and 980 nm lasers, respectively. Moreover, with incorporation of Tb3+, not only is emission from Tb3+ introduced but also the lifetime difference of 0.13 ms (Er3+) and 3.6 ms (Tb3+) is yielded for the green emission, respectively. Multiplexed fingerprint imaging and time-gated luminescence imaging were achieved in wavelength and lifetime dimensions. The spectral and lifetime encoding ability from lanthanide luminescence greatly broadens the scope of luminescent materials for optical multiplexing studies.

Tuning Long‐Lived Mn(II) Upconversion Luminescence through Alkaline‐Earth Metal Doping and Energy‐Level Tailoring

“…Notably, the patterns ii, iii, and iv displayed a similar whitish color readout as a result of a strong emission of Tm 3+ from the nanoparticles. In contrast, dynamic excitation yielded marked differences in the optical readout (Figure c) . We only observed a main spot emission from pattern i made of NaYF 4 :Yb/Er nanoparticles.…”

Recent Progress in Time‐Resolved Biosensing and Bioimaging Based on Lanthanide‐Doped Nanoparticles

“…d) Decay curves of the multicompartment core/shell upconversion nanoparticles under 808 and 980 nm excitation. c,d) Reproduced with permission . Copyright 2017, American Chemical Society.…”

“…Yan and co‐workers further developed a core–shell structure approach to simultaneously realize emission color and lifetime multiplexing in single UCNPs . In their design, the nanoparticles consisted of two noninterfering regions separated by an optically inert layer (Figure c).…”

“…Several strategies have been reported to tune the lifetimes of Ln 3+ -doped UCNPs, such as varied concentrations of sensitizer and activator, [63] epitaxial growth of passivated shells [65] and core-shell structure-mediated energy migration. [64,[66][67][68][69] Changing the concentrations of sensitizer and activator has been demonstrated to be a good way to regulate the luminescence lifetimes of UCNPs. In 2014, Jin et al developed an approach to precisely tune the luminescence lifetimes of lanthanide-doped nanocrystals by doping sensitizer Yb 3+ ions and activator Tm 3+ ions at varied concentrations into NaYF 4 nanocrystals.…”

Stimuli‐Responsive Lanthanide‐Based Smart Luminescent Materials for Optical Encoding and Bio‐applications

“…Taking advantage of Nd 3+ ‐sensitization function, Yan's group designed a multicompartments core‐shell UCNP NaGdF 4 : Yb/Tm@NaGdF 4 : Tb (or NaGdF 4 : Eu) @NaYF 4 @NaYF 4 : Yb/Er@NaYbF 4 : Nd@NaYF 4 (denoted as Tm@Tb (or Eu)@Y@Er@Nd@Y) in which luminescence of Tb 3+ and Er 3+ could be detected triggered with 980 and 808 nm lasers, respectively as is shown in Figure a–e . Besides that, they designed higher‐level anti‐counterfeiting patterns utilizing identifiable luminescence lifetime of Er 3+ and Tb 3+ (Eu 3+ ) (Figure f–g).…”