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Designing Sub‐2 nm Organosilica Nanohybrids for Far‐Field Super‐Resolution Imaging
Author(s) -
Liang Liangliang,
Yan Wei,
Qin Xian,
Peng Xiao,
Feng Han,
Wang Yu,
Zhu Ziyu,
Liu Lingmei,
Han Yu,
Xu Qinghua,
Qu Junle,
Liu Xiaogang
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
angewandte chemie
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1521-3757
pISSN - 0044-8249
DOI - 10.1002/ange.201912404
Subject(s) - sted microscopy , fluorescence , photoluminescence , materials science , quantum yield , nanodot , nanotechnology , photochemistry , microscopy , biological imaging , chemistry , stimulated emission , optoelectronics , optics , laser , physics
Stimulated emission depletion (STED) microscopy enables ultrastructural imaging of biological samples with high spatiotemporal resolution. STED nanoprobes based on fluorescent organosilica nanohybrids featuring sub‐2 nm size and near‐unity quantum yield are presented. The spin–orbit coupling (SOC) of heavy‐atom‐rich organic fluorophores is mitigated through a silane‐molecule‐mediated condensation/dehalogenation process, resulting in bright fluorescent organosilica nanohybrids with multiple emitters in one hybrid nanodot. When harnessed as STED nanoprobes, these fluorescent nanohybrids show intense photoluminescence, high biocompatibility, and long‐term photostability. Taking advantage of the low‐power excitation (0.5 μW), prolonged singlet‐state lifetime, and negligible depletion‐induced re‐excitation, these STED nanohybrids present high depletion efficiency (>96 %), extremely low saturation intensity (0.54 mW, ca. 0.188 MW cm −2 ), and ultra‐high lateral resolution (ca. λ em /28).