Dual-emissive quantum dots for multispectral intraoperative fluorescence imaging

Fluorescence molecular imaging is rapidly increasing its popularity in image guided surgery applications. To help develop its full surgical potential it remains a challenge to generate dual-emissive imaging agents that allow for combined visible assessment and sensitive camera based imaging. To this end, we now describe multispectral InP/ZnS quantum dots (QDs) that exhibit a bright visible green/yellow exciton emission combined with a long-lived far red defect emission. The intensity of the latter emission was enhanced by X-ray irradiation and allows for: 1) inverted QD density dependent defect emission intensity, showing improved efficacies at lower QD densities, and 2) detection without direct illumination and interference from autofluorescence.