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Monitoring the orientation of rare-earth-doped nanorods for flow shear tomography

Nature Nanotechnology volume 12, pages 914–919 (2017)Cite this article

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A Corrigendum to this article was published on 06 October 2017

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Abstract

Rare-earth phosphors exhibit unique luminescence polarization features originating from the anisotropic symmetry of the emitter ion's chemical environment. However, to take advantage of this peculiar property, it is necessary to control and measure the ensemble orientation of the host particles with a high degree of precision. Here, we show a methodology to obtain the photoluminescence polarization of Eu-doped LaPO4 nanorods assembled in an electrically modulated liquid-crystalline phase. We measure Eu3+ emission spectra for the three main optical configurations (σ, π and α, depending on the direction of observation and the polarization axes) and use them as a reference for the nanorod orientation analysis. Based on the fact that flowing nanorods tend to orient along the shear strain profile, we use this orientation analysis to measure the local shear rate in a flowing liquid. The potential of this approach is then demonstrated through tomographic imaging of the shear rate distribution in a microfluidic system.

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Figure 1: Polarized photoluminescence of LaPO4:Eu nanorods.
Figure 2: Stress-optical measurements of a flowing nanorod suspension.
Figure 3: Tomographic stress-optical analysis of a microfluidic system.

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Change history

  • 26 September 2017

    In the version of this Article originally published, the label in Fig. 1d that said 'σ = π' was incorrect, and should have said 'α = π'. This has been corrected in the online version. This change does not affect the results of the paper.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank C. Frot and N. Taccoen for the fabrication of microfluidic channels, C. Henry de Villeneuve for atomic force microscopy and A. Agrawal for graphics. This research was partially supported by LASERLAB-EUROPE (grant agreement no. 284464 from the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme). G.A., E.F. and C.N.B. acknowledge funding by the ERC under grant agreement 278248 (Multicell).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratoire de Physique de la Matière Condensée, Ecole Polytechnique, CNRS, Université Paris-Saclay, Palaiseau, 91128, France

    Jongwook Kim, Lucio Martinelli, Elodie Chaudan, Jean-Pierre Boilot, Jacques Peretti & Thierry Gacoin

  2. Laboratoire d'Hydrodynamique (LadHyX), Ecole Polytechnique, CNRS, Université Paris-Saclay, Palaiseau, 91128, France

    Sébastien Michelin, Gabriel Amselem, Etienne Fradet & Charles N. Baroud

  3. van ‘t Hoff Institute for Molecular Sciences, University of Amsterdam, PO Box 94157, GD Amsterdam, 1090, The Netherlands

    Michiel Hilbers & Albert M. Brouwer

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  1. Jongwook Kim
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Contributions

J.K., J.-P.B., J.P. and T.G. developed the concept. J.K. performed synthesis, fabrication and characterizations. S.M. performed computational analysis. J.K. and M.H. performed polarized photoluminescence measurements. J.K., E.F., M.H., E.C. and G.A. performed microfluidic experiments. L.M. and M.H. prepared optical set-ups. J.K., L.M. and J.P. performed polarization analysis. C.N.B. and A.M.B. provided advice regarding the research. T.G. and J.P. supervised the research. All authors contributed to writing the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Jongwook Kim or Thierry Gacoin.

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Kim, J., Michelin, S., Hilbers, M. et al. Monitoring the orientation of rare-earth-doped nanorods for flow shear tomography. Nature Nanotech 12, 914–919 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2017.111

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