Introducing Color Centers to Silicon Carbide Nanocrystals For in vivo Biomarker Applications: a First Principles Study

摘要

Molecule-sized fluorescent emitters are much sought-after to probe tiomolecules in living cells. We demonstrate here by time-dependent density functional calcuhtions that the experimentally achievable 1-2 nm sized silicon carbide nanocrystals can emit light in the near-infrared region after introducing appropriate color centers in them. These near-infraied luminescent silicon carbide nanocrystals may act as ideal fluorophores for in vivo bioimaging.