Abstract
The optically transparent biological window in the near-infrared (NIR) spectral range allows deep-tissue excitation and the detection of fluorescence signals1,2. Spectrum-domain discrimination of NIR contrast agents via an upconversion or downshifting scheme requires sufficient (anti-) Stokes shift to separate excitation and fluorescence emission. Here, we report a time-domain (τ) scheme in which about 5,000 ytterbium signal transducers are condensed within an optically inert and biocompatible CaF2 shell (2.3 nm), which forms a 14.5 nm τ-dot. Because of the long-lived and spectrally narrowly defined excited state of pure ytterbium ions, the NIR τ-dot can convert the NIR pulsed excitation into long-decaying luminescence with an efficiency approaching 100%. Within a safe injection dosage of 13 μg g−1, an excitation power density of 1.1 mW cm−2 was sufficient to image organs with a signal-to-noise ratio of >9. The high brightness of τ-dots further allows long-term in vivo passive targeting and dynamic tracking in a tumour-bearing mouse model.
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Data availability
The data that support the plots within this paper and other findings of this study are available from the corresponding authors upon reasonable request.
Change history
19 June 2019
In the version of this Letter originally published online, in the sentence beginning “Here, we report a time-domain (τ) scheme”, ‘>5,000 ytterbium signal transducers’ should have read ‘about 5,000 ytterbium signal transducers’. And in the graph labelled ‘Downshifting’ in Fig. 1d the red peak was labelled ‘Em.’; instead it should have been labelled ‘Ex.’ These errors have now been corrected in all versions.
09 June 2021
A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-021-00834-7
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Acknowledgements
This project was primarily supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (2017YFA0205100), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21527801, 21722101, 61729501 and 51720105015), the Strategic Seeding Fund of the UTS Institute for Biomedical Materials and Devices (IBMD) and the Australian Research Council (ARC) Future Fellowship Scheme (to D.J., FT 130100517). The authors thank X. Chen, D. Tu and W. You for their help with lifetime measurements.
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W.F., D.J. and F.L. conceived the project and supervised the research. Y.Gu synthesized the nanoparticles and was primarily responsible for conducting the experiments. Z.G., F.W. and D.J. designed and modified the optical spectroscopy and imaging instruments. Y.Gu, D.J., J.Z., W.F. and F.L. analysed the results, prepared the figures and wrote the manuscript. All authors participated in discussions and editing of the manuscript.
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Gu, Y., Guo, Z., Yuan, W. et al. High-sensitivity imaging of time-domain near-infrared light transducer. Nat. Photonics 13, 525–531 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-019-0437-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-019-0437-z
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