R&D: Lanthanide-Doped Heterostructured Nanocomposites Toward Advanced Optical Anti-Counterfeiting and Information Storage

Light: Science & Applications has published an article written by Yao Xie, Department of Physics, College of Sciences, Shanghai University, Shanghai, 200444, China, Department of Chemistry, College of Sciences, Shanghai University, Shanghai, 200444, China, Yapai Song, Guotao Sun, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shanghai University, Shanghai, 200444, China, and Research Center of Nano Science and Technology, College of Sciences, Shanghai University, Shanghai, 200444, China, Pengfei Hu, Instrumental Analysis & Research Center, Shanghai University, Shanghai, 200444, China, Artur Bednarkiewicz, Institute of Low Temperature and Structure Research, Polish Academy of Sciences, 50-422, Wrocław, Poland, and Lining Sun, Department of Chemistry, College of Sciences, Shanghai University, Shanghai, 200444, China, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shanghai University, Shanghai, 200444, China, and Research Center of Nano Science and Technology, College of Sciences, Shanghai University, Shanghai, 200444, China.

Abstract: “The continuously growing importance of information storage, transmission, and authentication impose many new demands and challenges for modern nano-photonic materials and information storage technologies, both in security and storage capacity. Recently, luminescent lanthanide-doped nanomaterials have drawn much attention in this field because of their photostability, multimodal/multicolor/narrowband emissions, and long luminescence lifetime. Here, we report a multimodal nanocomposite composed of lanthanide-doped upconverting nanoparticle and EuSe semiconductor, which was constructed by utilizing a cation exchange strategy. The nanocomposite can emit blue and white light under 365 and 394 nm excitation, respectively. Meanwhile, the nanocomposites show different colors under 980 nm laser excitation when the content of Tb³⁺ ions is changed in the upconversion nanoparticles. Moreover, the time-gating technology is used to filter the upconversion emission of a long lifetime from Tb³⁺ or Eu³⁺, and the possibilities for modulating the emission color of the nanocomposites are further expanded. Based on the advantage of multiple tunable luminescence, the nanocomposites are designed as optical modules to load optical information. This work enables multi-dimensional storage of information and provides new insights into the design and fabrication of next-generation storage materials.“