Luminescent Nanoparticles for Light Sources and Theranostics

Dear Colleagues,

In addition to traditional applications as light sources, luminescent crystalline dielectric nanoparticles doped with rare earth ions and nanodiamonds with color optical centers have been attracting attention as a new class of drugs combining properties for both diagnostic and therapeutic effects. They can serve, for example, in diagnosing cancer at the early stages of disease, as well as in localized controlled treatment that is noninvasive for healthy tissues. In spite of great progress in the synthesis of luminescent up- and downconversion crystalline nanoparticles, their fluorescence efficiency is still far behind the similar bulk crystals or organic dyes and quantum dots. The problems are associated either with additional luminescence quenching channels and mechanisms that are not characteristic of bulk crystals or small absorption cross-sections of partially forbidden 4f–4f dipole transitions of rare earth ions. Finding ways to significantly increase the luminescence efficiency of the rare earth-doped nanoparticles will enable their actual application in bio-imaging. Another prospective research area is related with the ability of nanoparticles to locally heat biotissues under laser excitation, allowing the possibility of them being used as noninvasive high-precision thermal sensors at physiological temperature range. This direction also requires the efforts of the scientific community to achieve the goal of the practical use of nanoparticles for biomedical applications, including theranostics. Last, but not least, an important problem to be solved in application is in elimination of the effects of agglomeration of single nanocrystals in aqueous colloidal solutions into aggregates, which can greatly narrow the scope of their possible applications, which includes imaging and temperature measurement inside living cells.

The purpose of this special collection of papers is to introduce the reader to new approaches for improvement of the physical, optical, and luminescent properties of crystalline nanoparticles, as well as their aqueous colloidal solutions, for use as light sources and in theranostics. Both original papers and reviews are welcome.

Dr. Yurii Orlovskii
Guest Editor

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• crystalline dielectric-doped nanoparticles
• rare earth ions
• nanodiamonds
• color optical centers
• aqueous colloidal solutions of the nanoparticles
• core–shell nanoparticles
• ensembles and single nanoparticles
• luminescence sensitization and quenching
• nonradiative quenching energy transfer
• thermal, thermo-optical, and thermoluminescent properties
• nanoheaters
• luminescent thermosensors