Gated Luminescence Imaging of Silicon Nanoparticles.

ABSTRACT: The luminescence lifetime of nanocrystalline silicon is typically on the order of microseconds, significantly longer than the nanosecond lifetimes exhibited by fluorescent molecules naturally present in cells and tissues. Time-gated imaging, where the image is acquired at a time after termination of an excitation pulse, allows discrimination of a silicon nanoparticle probe from these endogenous signals. Because of the microsecond time scale for silicon emission, time-gated imaging is relatively simple to implement for this biocompatible and nontoxic probe. Here a time-gated system with ∼10 ns resolution is described, using an intensified CCD camera and pulsed LED or laser excitation sources. The method is demonstrated by tracking the fate of mesoporous silicon nanoparticles containing the

SUBMITTER: Joo J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4931905 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature