Enhanced infrared-to-visible upconversion imaging via metasurface–lanthanide nanoparticle hybrid screens
Abstract Accessing the rich information carried by infrared light typically relies on bulky, complex optoelectronic systems. Lanthanide-based upconverting nanoparticles (UCNPs) offer a compelling alternative by converting infrared light into visible photons through nonlinear anti-Stokes processes. However, achieving strong upconversion under the low excitation intensities relevant to infrared vision remains challenging, motivating strategies to enhance light–matter interaction. Here, we demonstrate enhanced infrared-to-visible upconversion imaging enabled by integrating alloyed Yb/Er UCNPs with a resonant dielectric metasurface. The metasurface supports an optical resonance aligned with the UCNP excitation band, leading to over three orders of magnitude enhancement in upconversion emission. Crucially, flat-band angular dispersion of this resonance enables uniform enhancement across incident angles relevant to imaging, thereby preserving spatial frequency content and yielding sharp, high-contrast images. In light of ongoing advances in lanthanide-based materials, this metasurface–UCNP hybrid screen provides a promising platform for compact, detector-free, and scalable infrared imaging technologies based on optical upconversion.
Authors
- Duk‐Yong Choi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5339-3085)
- P. James Schuck (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9244-2671)
- Xiao Qi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4884-6454)
- Jiajun Meng (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8883-1778)
- Damian Nelson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9914-7015)
- Gus O. Bonin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3092-3781)
- Changhwan Lee (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0002-7703-528X)
- Robert W. de Gille (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1680-5220)
- Bruce E. Cohen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3655-3638)
- Nima Sefidmooye Azar (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3263-7044)
- Dragomir N. Neshev (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4508-8646)
- Benjamin Russell
- Henry Tan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5902-0589)
- Kenneth B. Crozier (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0947-001X)
- Sivacarendran Balendhran (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4390-3491)
- Wei Luo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0139-3884)
- Emory M. Chan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5655-0146)
- Matthew Parry
- Wendy S. L. Lee
Institutions
- Australian National University (AU)
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (US)
- Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KR)
- The University of Melbourne (AU)
- ARC Centre of Excellence for Transformative Meta-Optical Systems (AU)
- Columbia University (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Light Science & Applications
- Published
- 2026-09-09
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41377-026-02449-5
- Primary Topic
- Metamaterials and Metasurfaces Applications
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00