中央研究院 原子與分子科學研究所

Fluorescent nanodiamond (FND) has recently played a central role in fueling new discoveries in interdisciplinary fields spanning biology, chemistry, physics, and materials sciences.  The nanoparticle is unique in that it contains a high density ensemble of negatively charged nitrogen-vacancy (NV^–) centers with outstanding optical and magnetic properties.  Firstly, NV^– has an absorption maximum at ~550 nm and when exposed to green-orange light, it emits bright fluorescence at ~700 nm with a lifetime of longer than 10 ns.  These spectroscopic properties are little affected by surface modification and allow background-free imaging of FNDs in tissue sections.  Next, as an artificial atom in the solid state, the NV^– center is perfectly photostable, without photobleaching and blinking.  Therefore, the NV-containing FND is suitable as a contrast agent for super-resolution imaging by stimulated emission depletion (STED).  Last, the NV^– center in diamond is an atom-like quantum system with a total electron spin of 1 and the ground states of the spins show a crystal field splitting of 2.87 GHz, separating the m_s = 0 and ±1 sublevels.  Nanothermometry with both high spatial and temporal resolution can be achieved with a technique known as optically detected magnetic resonance (ODMR).  This account provides a summary of the recent advances in FND-enabled technologies with a special focus on long-term cell tracking, super-resolution imaging, and nanoscale temperature sensing.  These emerging and multifaceted technologies are in synchronicity with modern imaging modalities.  

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