Paper
11 February 2011 Method for imaging quantum dots during exposure to gamma radiation
Andrea N. Immucci, Astrid Chamson-Reig, Kui Yu, Diana Wilkinson, Chunsheng Li, Robert Z. Stodilka, Jeffrey J. L. Carson
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Abstract
Quantum dots have been used in a wide variety of biomedical applications. A key advantage of these particles is that their optical properties depend predictably on size, which enables tuning of the emission wavelength. Recently, it was found that CdSe/ZnS quantum dots lose their ability to photoluminescence after exposure to gamma radiation (J. Phys. Chem. C., 113: 2580-2585 (2009). A method for readout of the loss of quantum dot photoluminescence during exposure to radiation could enable a multitude of real-time dosimetry applications. Here, we report on a method to image photoluminescence from quantum dots from a distance and under ambient lighting conditions. The approach was to construct and test a time-gated imaging system that incorporated pulsed illumination. The system was constructed from a pulsed green laser (Nd:YAG, 20 pulses/s, 5 ns pulse duration, ~5 mJ/pulse), a time-gated camera (LaVision Picostar, 2 ns gate width), and optical components to enable coaxial illumination and imaging. Using the system to image samples of equivalent concentration to the previous end-point work, quantum dot photoluminescence was measureable under ambient room lighting at a distance of 25 cm from the sample with a signal to background of 7.5:1. Continuous exposure of samples to pulsed laser produced no measureable loss of photoluminescence over a time period of one hour. With improvements to the light collection optics the range of the system is expected to increase to several metres, which will enable imaging of samples during exposure to a gamma radiation source.
© (2011) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
Andrea N. Immucci, Astrid Chamson-Reig, Kui Yu, Diana Wilkinson, Chunsheng Li, Robert Z. Stodilka, and Jeffrey J. L. Carson "Method for imaging quantum dots during exposure to gamma radiation", Proc. SPIE 7925, Frontiers in Ultrafast Optics: Biomedical, Scientific, and Industrial Applications XI, 792504 (11 February 2011); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.875379
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Cited by 4 scholarly publications.
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KEYWORDS
Luminescence

Imaging systems

Quantum dots

Cameras

Pulsed laser operation

Gamma radiation

Light sources and illumination

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