PhD thesis supervisor: dr. Danielis Rutkauskas (apply for recommendation)
Microspectroscopy of optically sensitive nanoprobes of biological milieu
For personalized disease prevention, diagnostics and treatment it is of interest to have detailed information about physiological parameters of the cellular environment such as temperature, pH, and the strength of the electric field. Also, it is desirable, that these parameters were available with a high, submicron, spatial resolution since important are not only the average cellular characteristics but also the local values and their changes existing on a smaller spatial scale than the cellular dimensions. Monocrystal diamond needles (DN) with colour centres, such as NV- and SiV-, are a class of materials, that hold a lot of promise for the bespoken application. It is very relevant that DNs are biologically compatible since they are not toxic. Also, in the context of cellular internalization, their chemical functionalization is straightforward. And most importantly, the spectroscopic properties of the DN colour centres are sensitive to the environmental factors. The aim of the project is to explore the dependency of the spectroscopic properties on the environmental parameters of the colour centres of DNs fabricated by different methods. To do so, we are going to use a few advanced microscopy setups such as single molecule fluorescence microscope or a fluorescence microscope combined with a streak camera. It is expected, that in the course of the project we will point out a way to prepare DN with the maximum possible sensitivity of the spectral properties to the environmental factors.