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 allowsin vivomouse imaging with a better signal to background ratio than classical quantum dots. 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 CrN2can 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.
Plasmonic Metamaterials and Nanocomposites with the Narrow Transparency Window Effect in Broad Extinction Spectra