Smart control of photon upconversion is a key strategy for lanthanide-based materials used in biological and photonic applications. However, this has remained a challenge for the upconversion luminescence of lanthanides under excitation in the second near-infrared (NIR II) biowindow instead of at the conventional 980 and 808 nm wavelengths. Here, we report a conceptual design for an energy-migratory ytterbium sublattice in an erbium-sensitized multilayer core–shell nanostructure that is able to achieve photon upconversion from a broad range of lanthanide ions (Yb³⁺, Tm³⁺, Ho³⁺, Gd³⁺, Eu³⁺ and Tb³⁺) under 1,530 nm irradiation. The quasi-single-band upconversion in the first near-infrared (NIR I) biowindow is also realized through fine manipulation of the introduced cross-relaxations. By establishing an interfacial energy-transfer-mediated nanostructure, we also gain a deep insight into the mechanistic features of the energy migration. These results open new opportunities in a variety of frontier applications, such as information security.

光子上转换的智能控制是用于生物和光子应用中基于镧系元素的材料的关键策略。但是，这对于镧系元素在第二近红外（NIR II）生物窗口中而不是常规980和808 nm波长激发下的上转换发光仍然是一个挑战。在这里，我们报告了在敏感的多层核-壳纳米结构中能迁移能量的sub亚晶格的概念设计，该结构能够实现从多种镧系元素离子（Yb ³⁺，Tm ³⁺，Ho ³⁺，Gd ³⁺，Eu ³⁺和Tb ³⁺）在1,530 nm辐射下。第一个近红外（NIR I）生物窗口中的准单波段上转换也可以通过对引入的交叉松弛进行精细控制来实现。通过建立界面能量转移介导的纳米结构，我们还获得了对能量迁移机制特征的深入了解。这些结果为诸如信息安全之类的各种前沿应用带来了新的机遇。