SBIR PHASE II: Nanoparticle Photostimulated Luminescence Based Optical Storage

This Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) Phase II project will demonstrate the ability to generate photostimulated luminescence (PSL) in nanoparticles. The potential applications in digital imaging and storage offered by PSL phosphors, including X-ray imaging could be significant. PSL phosphors currently in use present several drawbacks including greater expense and poorer resolution as compared to conventional screen-film methods. The quantum confinement of nanoparticles offers solutions to many of the shortcomings of existing PSL phosphors. The project will characterize nanoparticles with a goal of optimizing these materials for use as phosphors in thin films. The project will also fabricate the required thin films and compare them to commercially available PSL phosphors for performance, longevity, and other factors of interest. The commercial applications will be widely applicable to digital imaging, offering high resolution, low cost, easy storage, low complexity, easy portability, and other desirable features. Materials with efficient PSL have great potential for technical applications such as optical storage, X-ray imaging, radiation measurements and quality control, optical dosimeters and dating, infrared sensors, image intensifiers, near-infrared-to-visible light converters, and bio-molecular structure recording and probing.