Direct optical imaging of graphene in vitro by nonlinear femtosecond laser spectral reshaping

Nano Lett. 2012 Nov 14;12(11):5936-40. doi: 10.1021/nl303358p. Epub 2012 Oct 30.

Abstract

Nonlinear optical microscopy, based on femtosecond laser spectral reshaping, characterized and imaged graphene samples made from different methods, both on slides and in a biological environment. This technique clearly discriminates between graphene flakes with different numbers of layers and reveals the distinct nonlinear optical properties of reduced graphene oxide as compared to mechanically exfoliated or chemical vapor deposition grown graphene. The nonlinearity makes it applicable to scattering samples (such as tissue) as opposed to previous methods, such as transmission. This was demonstrated by high-resolution imaging of breast cancer cells incubated with graphene flakes.

MeSH terms

  • Absorption
  • Biosensing Techniques
  • Breast Neoplasms / pathology
  • Cell Line, Tumor
  • Drug Delivery Systems
  • Female
  • Glass
  • Graphite / chemistry*
  • Humans
  • Imaging, Three-Dimensional
  • Microscopy / methods
  • Optical Imaging / methods*
  • Optics and Photonics
  • Oxides / chemistry
  • Scattering, Radiation
  • Spectrophotometry / methods*
  • Spectrum Analysis, Raman / methods
  • Surface Properties
  • Tissue Engineering / methods

Substances

  • Oxides
  • Graphite