Laser refrigeration of hydrothermal nanocrystals in physiological media
Abstract
Although the laser refrigeration of bulk crystals has recently shown to cool below cryogenic temperatures (∼90 K) in vacuum, to date the laser refrigeration of physiological media has not been reported. In this work, a low-cost hydrothermal synthetic approach is used to prepare nanocrystals that are capable of locally refrigerating physiological buffers (PBS, DMEM) upon near-infrared illumination. Optical tweezers are used in tandem with cold Brownian motion analysis to observe the refrigeration of individual (Yb 3+ )-doped nanocrystals >10 °C below ambient conditions. The ability to optically generate local refrigeration fields around individual nanocrystals promises to enable precise optical temperature control within integrated electronic/photonic/microfluidic circuits, and also thermal modulation of basic biomolecular processes, including the dynamics of motor proteins.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Nov 20, 2015
- Source ID
- 10.1073/pnas.1510418112
Entities
People
- Bennett E. Smith
- Matthew J Crane
- Paden B. Roder
- Peter J. Pauzauskie
- Xuezhe Zhou
Organizations
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- National Science Foundation
- Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
- United States Department of Defense
- University of Washington