Fabrication of Nd and Yb doped NIR emitting nano fluorescent probe: A candidate for bioimaging applications.

The intentional design of rare earth doped luminescent architecture exhibits unique optical properties and it can be considered as a promising and potential probe for optical imaging applications. Calcium fluoride (CaF) nanoparticles doped with optimum concentration of Nd and Yb as sensitizer and activator, respectively, were synthesized by wet precipitation method and characterized by x-ray diffraction (XRD) and photoluminescence. In spite of the fact that the energy transfer takes place from Nd to Yb, the luminescence intensity was found to be weak due to the lattice defects generated from the doping of trivalent cations (Nd and Yb) for divalent host cations (Ca).