Non-blinking and photostable upconverted luminescence from single lanthanide-doped nanocrystals

The development of probes for single-molecule imaging has dramatically facilitated the study of individual molecules in cells and other complex environments. Single-molecule probes ideally exhibit good brightness, uninterrupted emission, resistance to photobleaching, and minimal spectral overlap with cellular autofluorescence. However, most single-molecule probes are imperfect in several of these aspects, and none have been shown to possess all of these characteristics. Here we show that individual lanthanide-doped upconverting nanoparticles (UCNPs)--specifically, hexagonal phase NaYF(4) (beta-NaYF(4)) nanocrystals with multiple Yb(3+) and Er(3+) dopants--emit bright anti-Stokes visible upconverted…

• UD
  U.S. Department of Energy

  Awards: -AC02-05CH11231, Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231, 05CH11231, No. DE-AC02-05CH11231, AC02-05CH11231, DE-AC02, DE-AC02-05CH11231, DE-AC02-
• OO
  Office of Science

  Awards: AC02-05CH11231, -AC02-05CH11231, DE-AC02, No. DE-AC02-05CH11231, Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231
• BE
  Basic Energy Sciences

  Awards: DE-AC02, AC02-05CH11231, Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231, DE-AC02-05CH11231, No. DE-AC02-05CH11231, -AC02-05CH11231
• DO
  Division of Materials Sciences and Engineering

  Awards: DE-AC02, AC02-05CH11231, DE-AC02-05CH11231