Intracellular gold nanoparticles influence light scattering and facilitate amplified spontaneous emission generation

Generation of amplified stimulated emission inside mammalian cells has paved the way for a novel bioimaging and cell sensing approach. Single cells carrying gain media (e.g., fluorescent molecules) are placed inside an optical cavity, allowing the production of intracellular laser emission upon sufficient optical pumping. Here, we investigate the possibility to trigger another amplified emission phenomenon (i.e., amplified spontaneous emission or ASE) inside two different cell types, namely macrophage and epithelial cells from different species and tissues, in the presence of a poorly reflecting cavity. Furthermore, the resulting ASE properties can be enhanced by introducing plasmonic nanoparticles. The presence of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) in rhodamine 6G-labeled A549 epithelial cells results in higher intensity and lowered ASE threshold in comparison to cells without nanoparticles, due to the effect of plasmonic field enhancement. An increase in intracellular concentration of AuNPs in rhodamine 6G-labeled macrophages is, however, responsible for the twofold increase in the ASE threshold and a reduction in the ASE intensity, dominantly due to a suppressed in and out-coupling of light at high nanoparticle concentrations.(c) 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Automated summary

The generation of amplified stimulated emission inside mammalian cells has opened up new possibilities for bioimaging and cell sensing. This study investigates the possibility of triggering amplified spontaneous emission inside different cell types and enhancing the emission properties using plasmonic nanoparticles.