On the temperature dependent photoluminescence of nanoscale LuPO 4 :Eu 3+ and their application for bioimaging.

This work concerns a synthesis method for efficiently luminescent LuPO 4 :Eu 3+ nanoscale particles (∼100 nm) as well as their temperature (77-500 K) and time dependent photoluminescence. In addition, the incubation of these particles into cells of a human lung adenocarcinomic cell line A549 is briefly presented. This points to the application for bioimaging and detection of cancer cells in the field of medical diagnostics. The emission spectra of Eu 3+ doped LuPO 4 nanoparticles show four [Xe]4f 6 → [Xe]4f 6 transition multiplets between 580 and 720 nm, which are typically for Eu 3+ comprising luminescent materials, however the most intense one is the 5 D 0 → 7 F 4 (696.40 nm, 1.78 eV) transition due to the crystallographic position point symmetry D 2d of Eu 3+ in xenotime LuPO 4 . Such an Eu 3+ spectrum is rather useful for diagnostics due to the high penetration depth of 700 nm radiation into tissue.