Hundreds of times of photo-stimulation with low energy light as a new reused bio-imaging phosphor from Cr3+, Si4+-doped Y3Ga5O12.

The persistent phosphor Y 3 Ga 5 O 12 : 0.5%Cr3+ (YGG:C) and Y 3 Ga 5 O 12 : 0.5%Cr3+, 0.5%Si4+ (YGG: CS) were synthesized by traditional solid-state reaction. Y 3 Ga 5 O 12 was employed as a host to take advantage of its abundant intrinsic traps. Moreover, Si4+ dopant was introduced to precisely tailor the trap distribution so that the initial persistent brightness of YGG: CS is around 7 times higher than that of YGG: C. The photo-stimulated traps were firstly found in YGG: CS, and the effective number of photo-stimulation was confirmed to be several hundreds. The broad emission band (650–950 nm) of YGG: CS and useful stimulated source (655 nm) are all located in the biological window (650–1350 nm). In this work, pork tissue imaging experiments were performed by means of the hundreds of hours persistent luminescence and hundreds of times photo-stimulated property of YGG: CS. Image 1 • The persistent property of the YGG: Cr3+ was improved for more than sevenfold. • Afterglow of YGG: Cr3+, Si4+ reappear through low-energy photo-stimulation. • The efficiency photo-stimulation process can be repeated hundreds of times. • Photo-stimulation dependence YGG: Cr3+, Si4+ showed great bio-imaging property. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]