Photoswitchable single-walled carbon nanotubes for super-resolution microscopy in the near-infrared

• Published in: Science advances Vol. 5; no. 9; p. eaax1166
• Main Authors: Godin, Antoine G, Setaro, Antonio, Gandil, Morgane, Haag, Rainer, Adeli, Mohsen, Reich, Stephanie, Cognet, Laurent
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) 27-09-2019; American Association for the Advancement of Science
• Subjects: Biological Physics; Condensed Matter; Materials Science; Optics; Other; Physics; SciAdv r-articles
• ISSN: 2375-2548; 2375-2548
• DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aax1166

The design of single-molecule photoswitchable emitters was the first milestone toward the advent of single-molecule localization microscopy, setting a new paradigm in the field of optical imaging. Several photoswitchable emitters have been developed, but they all fluoresce in the visible or far-red ranges, missing the desirable near-infrared window where biological tissues are most transparent. Moreover, photocontrol of individual emitters in the near-infrared would be highly desirable for elementary optical molecular switches or information storage elements since most communication data transfer protocols are established in this spectral range. Here, we introduce a type of hybrid nanomaterials consisting of single-wall carbon nanotubes covalently functionalized with photoswitching molecules that are used to control the intrinsic luminescence of the single nanotubes in the near-infrared (beyond 1 μm). Through the control of photoswitching, we demonstrate super-localization imaging of nanotubes unresolved by diffraction-limited microscopy.