Intracellular biocompatible hexagonal boron nitride quantum emitters as single-photon sources and barcodes.

ABSTRACT: Color centers in hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) have been emerging as a multifunctional platform for various optical applications including quantum information processing, quantum computing and imaging. Simultaneously, due to its biocompatibility and biodegradability hBN is a promising material for biomedical applications. In this work, we demonstrate single-photon emission from hBN color centers embedded inside live cells and their application to cellular barcoding. The generation and internalization of multiple color centers into cells was performed via simple and scalable procedure while keeping the cells unharmed. The emission from live cells was observed as multiple diffraction-limited spots, which exhibited excellent single-photon characteristics with high single-photon purity

SUBMITTER: Kavcic A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10903403 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature