Time-Resolved Luminescence Nanothermometry with Nitrogen-Vacancy Centers in Nanodiamonds
Yan-Kai Tzeng,1,2,† Pei-Chang Tsai,1,† Hsiou-Yuan Liu,1,3 Oliver Y. Chen,1 Hsiang Hsu,1 Fu-Goul Yee,3 Ming-Shien Chang,*,1 and Huan-Cheng Chang*,1,4
1Institute of Atomic and Molecular Sciences, Academia Sinica, Taipei 106, Taiwan
2Department of Chemistry, National Taiwan University, Taipei 106, Taiwan
3Department of Physics, National Taiwan University, Taipei 106, Taiwan
4Department of Chemical Engineering, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taipei 106, Taiwan
†These two authors contributed equally to this work.
Nano Lett. 15, 3945–3952 (2015).
Measuring temperature in nanoscale spatial resolution either at or far from equilibrium is of importance in many scientific and technological applications. Although negatively charged nitrogen-vacancy (NV–) centers in diamond have recently emerged as a promising nanometric temperature sensor, the technique has been applied only under steady state conditions so far. Here, we present a three-point sampling method that allows real-time monitoring of the temperature changes over ±100 K and a pump-probe-type experiment that enables the study of nanoscale heat transfer with a temporal resolution of better than 10 μs. The utility of the time-resolved luminescence nanothermometry was demonstrated with 100-nm FNDs spin-coated on a glass substrate and submerged in gold nanorod solution heated by a near-infrared laser, and the validity of the measurements was verified with finite-element numerical simulations. The combined theoretical and experimental approaches will be useful to implement time-resolved temperature sensing in laser processing of materials and even for devices in operation at the nanometer scale.