Optical nonlinearities in excess of 500 through sublattice reconstruction

Photon avalanche materials can turn tiny changes in light input into large increases in emission intensity, making them ideal for ultrasensitive detection and advanced imaging. A research team led by Professor Liu Xiaogang, Chief Principal Investigator from the Biomedical and Health Technology Research Platform of NUSRI Suzhou, has reported a major advancement in optical materials science. The researchers discovered that modifying the structure of lanthanide-doped nanocrystals, specifically by substituting lutetium into the crystal lattice to introduce pronounced local crystal field distortions, greatly boosted photon avalanche nonlinearity. They have developed a new class of lanthanide-doped nanomaterials that exhibit extraordinarily high optical nonlinearity, exceeding a magnitude of 500. This achievement establishes a new global benchmark for photon avalanche nanophotonics. The results were published in the journal Nature.

△Enhancement of photon-avalanche nonlinearity through sublattice reconstruction