EVENTS

Single upconversion nanoparticles for optical multiplexing, lasing, and fluorescence nanothermometry

Jul10

Jiajia Zhou

Title: Single upconversion nanoparticles for optical multiplexing, lasing, and fluorescence nanothermometry

Abstract: Tremendous progress in nanotechnology has promised advances in the use of luminescent nanomaterials in imaging, sensing and photonic devices. This translational process relies on the controllable photophysical properties of the building block - single luminescent nanoparticles. Among various nanoparticles, upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs) are featured with unique anti-Stokes emissions, enabling the conversion of long wavelength near-infrared (NIR) light to short wavelength NIR, visible, or UV light. In this talk, I will introduce our recent spectroscopic studies of single UCNPs, as well as their applications in optical multiplexing, lasing and fluorescence nanothermometry.

Biography: Dr Jiajia Zhou is currently an ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) Fellow, Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Research Fellow and Senior Lecturer at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS). In 2013, she received her PhD degree in Materials Science and Engineering from Zhejiang University under the supervision of Prof. Jianrong Qiu. After PhD, she took a Lectureship and joined the China Jiliang University. At the end of 2016 she joined UTS’s research Institute for Biomedical Materials & Devices (IBMD), under the leadership of Prof. Dayong Jin. She is the winner of the Sturge Prize and finalist in Australian Museum Eureka Prizes for Outstanding Early Career Researcher in 2019. Her publication record consists of more than 90 peer-reviewed papers, including seven papers in Nature (2), Nature Photonics (3), Nature Methods (1) and Nature Communications (1). Her work has attracted more than 3,200 citations with a google h-index of 29. Her research interest focuses on lanthanide nanophotonics, spectroscopic physics, and sensing technologies.



Shaowei Wang

Title: Getting deep insights into brain and tumors by near infrared-II excited intravital two-photon fluorescence imaging

Abstract: Intravital fluorescence imaging of vasculature morphology and dynamics in the brain and in tumors with large penetration depth and high signal-to-background ratio (SBR) is highly desirable for the study and theranostics of vascular-related diseases and cancers. Two-photon fluorescence microscopy (2PFM) with near-infrared (NIR) light excitation is a relatively noninvasive approach commonly used to study brain with high spatial resolution and large imaging depth. NIR-II light excitable single-chain conjugated polymer dots with bright fluorescence in NIR-I region are developed for deep in vivo two-photon fluorescence imaging of intact mouse brain. A 3D reconstruction of the brain blood vessel network is obtained with a large vertical depth of 400 μm through intact skull. Secondly, a highly bright organic dot with long-wavelength absorption and aggregation-induced NIR emission is designed for intravital two-photon fluorescence (2PF) imaging of a mouse brain and tumor vasculatures under NIR-II light (1200 nm) excitation. The organic dots show enhanced 2PF in tumor vasculatures due to their unique leaky structures, which facilitates the differentiation of normal blood vessels from tumor vessels with high SBR in deep tumor tissues. Moreover, the extravasation and accumulation of organic dots in deep tumor (more than 900 μm) is visualized under NIR-II excitation. This study highlights the importance of developing NIR-II light excitable efficient NIR fluorophores for in vivo deep tissue and high contrast tumor imaging.

Biography: Shaowei Wang received his PhD degree in Optical Engineering from Zhejiang University in June 2016. He Joined the National University of Singapore (NUS) in November of the same year for postdoctoral training under the supervision of Professor Bin Liu. His research focus is multiphoton fluorescence imaging, light-mediated tumor theranostics and cardiovascular imaging. He has been working on the interdisciplinary research for 9 years with backgrounds in instrumental science, optics, biomedical science and chemistry materials etc.



Yang Liu

Title: RF photonic signal processing and radar detection using acousto-optic effects

Abstract: The light-sound interaction has demonstrated great applicability in microwave photonics, enabling ultra-fine fine processing resolution and wideband frequency agility. Here we present the recent advances in microwave photonic signal processing and Radar detection using acousto-optic effects.

Biography: Yang Liu received a Bachelor’s degree in optoelectronics from the Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), Wuhan, China, in 2012 and a Master’s degree in optical engineering from Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics (WNLO) in 2015. He received a Ph.D. degree in physics in the Nonlinear Photonics Group at the Centre for Ultrahigh Bandwidth Devices for Optical Systems (CUDOS), School of Physics, University of Sydney, Australia, in 2019. He is currently a Postdoctoral Research Associate leading integrated microwave photonics and hybrid integration research activities in The University of Sydney, Australia. Yang was the recipient of the Chinese Government Award for Distinguished Self-financed Student Abroad in 2019, and the Marie Curie Individual Fellowship in 2020. His research interests include the fundamentals and applications of nonlinear optics and high-speed microwave photonics in integrated photonic platforms. He was the Vice President of OSA/SPIE student chapters at the University of Sydney from 2017 to 2018. He was a conference organization committee member for IONS KOALA 2018.