Potential biomedical use of diode-laser-induced luminescence from upconverting nanoparticles

The intention with this chapter is to briefly review the capabilities made possible in the field of biomedical diagnostics and treatment by employing upconverting nanoparticles (UCNPs), as well as the importance of appropriate light sources for such applications. The field of UCNPs in biomedicine has grown rapidly the last decade, since they first were made sufficiently small and bright to be of real interest for biomedical applications. This research has been reviewed previously, while this chapter will focus on recent advances in the use of UCNPs for preclinical applications and diagnostic assays using laser diode excitation.