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Molecular Foundry

HIGHLIGHTSPhotoswitchable Nanoparticles Offer Advances in Optical Probes, 3D Memory, and Super-Resolution Microscopy
July 15, 2023

Scientific Achievement

NIR rewritable photopatterning of successive designs in a 100-nm thick ANP film. ANPs show no measurable degradation over 1000+ cycles.

Demonstrated unlimited two-way switching of photon avalanching in upconverting nanoparticles using near-infrared light, without degradation.

Significance and Impact

Will enable imaging of materials and cellular structures in unprecedented detail and presents new approaches for fully rewritable, high-density data storage.

Research Details

  • Synthesized Tm3+-doped core-shell NaYF4 avalanching nanoparticles (ANPs)
  • Demonstrated photoswitching of ANPs with NIR lasers
  • Found no measurable degradation of emission over 1000+ photoswitching cycles, under ambient and aqueous conditions
  • Demonstrated super-resolution imaging of ANPs with sub-Ångstrom precision and rewritable 2D and 3D optical patterning with NIR lasers
Lee, C., Xu, E.Z., Kwock, K.W.C. et al. Nature 618, 951–958 (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-06076-7

Read the news article on this paper.

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