Zinc Oxide Nanocrystals for Non-resonant Nonlinear Optical Microscopy in Biology and Medicine

In this paper we show that biocompatible zinc oxide (ZnO) nanocrystals (NCs) having non-centrosymmetric structure can be used as non-resonant nonlinear optical probes for targeting in bioimaging applications in vitro by use of the second order processes of second harmonic and sum frequency generation, as well as the third order process of four wave mixing. These non-resonant processes provide advantages above and beyond traditional two-photon bioimaging: (i) the probes do not photo-bleach; (ii) the input wavelength can be judiciously selected; and (iii) no heat is dissipated into the cells, ensuring longer cell viability and ultimately longer imaging times. ZnO NCs have been synthesized in organic media by using a non-hydrolytic sol-gel process, and subsequently dispersed in aqueous media using phospholipid micelles, and incorporated with the biotargeting molecule folic acid (FA). Sum Frequency, Second Harmonic and non-resonant four wave mixing non-linear signals from this stable dispersion of ZnO NCs, targeted to the live tumor (KB) cells were used for imaging. Robust intracellular accumulation of the targeted (FA incorporated) ZnO nanocrystals could be observed, without any indication of cytotoxicity.