Enhancement of X-ray-Excited Red Luminescence of Chromium-Doped Zinc Gallate via Ultrasmall Silicon Carbide Nanocrystals

Dávid Beke; Marco V Nardi; Gábor Bortel; Melanie Timpel; Zsolt Czigány; Luca Pasquali; Andrea Chiappini; Giorgio Bais; Mátyás Rudolf; Dóra Zalka; Franca Bigi; Francesca Rossi; László Bencs; Aron Pekker; Bence G Márkus; Giancarlo Salviati; Stephen E Saddow; Katalin Kamarás; Ferenc Simon; Adam Gali

doi:10.1021/acs.chemmater.0c04671

Enhancement of X-ray-Excited Red Luminescence of Chromium-Doped Zinc Gallate via Ultrasmall Silicon Carbide Nanocrystals

Chem Mater. 2021 Apr 13;33(7):2457-2465. doi: 10.1021/acs.chemmater.0c04671. Epub 2021 Mar 18.

Authors

Dávid Beke^{1

2}, Marco V Nardi³, Gábor Bortel¹, Melanie Timpel³, Zsolt Czigány⁴, Luca Pasquali^{5

6

7}, Andrea Chiappini⁸, Giorgio Bais⁹, Mátyás Rudolf¹, Dóra Zalka¹, Franca Bigi^{10

11}, Francesca Rossi¹¹, László Bencs¹, Aron Pekker¹, Bence G Márkus^{1

12}, Giancarlo Salviati¹¹, Stephen E Saddow¹³, Katalin Kamarás¹, Ferenc Simon¹², Adam Gali^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Wigner Research Centre for Physics, Institute for Solid State Physics and Optics, P.O. Box 49, Budapest H-1525, Hungary.
² Department of Atomic Physics, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Budafoki út 8., Budapest H-1111, Hungary.
³ IMEM-CNR, Institute of Materials for Electronic and Magnetism, Trento Unit C/o Fondazione Bruno Kessler, Via Alla Cascata 56/C, Povo 38123, Trento, Italy.
⁴ Centre for Energy Research, Institute for Technical Physics and Materials Science, Konkoly-Thege M. út 29-33., Budapest H-1121, Hungary.
⁵ IOM-CNR Institute, Area Science Park, SS 14 Km, 163.5, Basovizza, Trieste 34149, Italy.
⁶ Engineering Department, University of Modena e Reggio Emilia, "E. Ferrari", Via Vivarelli 10, Modena 41125, Italy.
⁷ Department of Physics, University of Johannesburg, P.O. Box 524, Auckland Park, Johannesburg 2006, South Africa.
⁸ CNR-IFN, CSMFO Lab, & FBK Photonics Unit, Via Alla Cascata 56/C, Povo, Trento 38123, Italy.
⁹ Elettra - Sincrotrone Trieste, S.C.p.A., Area Science Park, Basovizza, SS 14 Km 163.5, Trieste 34149, Italy.
¹⁰ Dipartimento di Scienze Chimiche, Della Vita e Della Sostenibilità Ambientale, Università di Parma, Parma 43124, Italy.
¹¹ IMEM Parma-CNR, Parma 43124, Italy.
¹² Department of Physics, Budapest University of Technology and Economics and MTA-BME Lendület Spintronics Research Group (PROSPIN), Budafoki út 8., Budapest H-1111, Hungary.
¹³ Department of Electrical Engineering, University of South Florida, 4202 East Fowler Avenue, Tampa 33620, Florida, United States.

Abstract

X-ray-activated near-infrared luminescent nanoparticles are considered as new alternative optical probes due to being free of autofluorescence, while both their excitation and emission possess a high penetration efficacy in vivo. Herein, we report silicon carbide quantum dot sensitization of trivalent chromium-doped zinc gallate nanoparticles with enhanced near-infrared emission upon X-ray and UV-vis light excitation. We have found that a ZnGa₂O₄ shell is formed around the SiC nanoparticles during seeded hydrothermal growth, and SiC increases the emission efficiency up to 1 order of magnitude due to band alignment that channels the excited electrons to the chromium ion.