Light-Emitting Diode Excitation for Upconversion Microscopy: A Quantitative Assessment.
basic_science · Level V
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- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 32936645.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1021/acs.nanolett.0c02697.
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Abstract
Lanthanide-based upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs) generally require high power laser excitation. Here, we report wide-field upconversion microscopy at single-nanoparticle sensitivity using incoherent excitation of a 970 nm light-emitting diode (LED). We show that due to its broad emission spectrum, LED excitation is about 3 times less effective for UCNPs and generates high background compared to laser illumination. To counter this, we use time-gated luminescence detection to eliminate the residual background from the LED source, so that individual UCNPs with high sensitizer (Yb<sup>3+</sup>) doping and inert shell protection become clearly identified under LED excitation at 1.18 W cm<sup>-2</sup>, as confirmed by correlated electron microscopy images. Hydrophilic UCNPs are obtained by polysaccharide coating via a facile ligand exchange protocol to demonstrate imaging of cellular uptake using LED excitation. These results suggest a viable approach to bypassing the limitations associated with high-power lasers when applying UCNPs and upconversion microscopy to life science research.