Persistent luminescence in ZnGa2O4:Cr: an outstanding biomarker for in-vivo imaging

ZnGa2O4 (ZGO) is a normal spinel. When doped with Cr3+ ions, ZGO: Cr becomes a high brightness persistent luminescence material with an emission spectrum perfectly matching the transparency window of living tissues. It allows in vivo mouse imaging with a better signal to background ratio than classical fluorescent NIR probes. The most interesting characteristic of ZGO: Cr lies in the fact that its LLP can be excited with red light, well below its band gap energy and in the transparency window of living tissues. A mechanism based on the trapping of carriers localized around a special type of Cr3+ ions namely Cr-N2 can explain this singularity. The antisite defects of the structure are the main responsible traps in the persistent luminescence mechanism. When located around Cr3+ ions, they allow, via Cr3+ absorption, the storage of not only UV light but also all visible light from the excitation source.