Novel approach for label free super-resolution imaging in far field
Date
2015Author
Alexandrov, Sergey
McGrath, James
Hrebesh, Subhash
Leahy, Martin
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Recommended Citation
S. Alexandrov, J. McGrath, H. Subhash, F. Boccafoschi, C. Giannini and Martin Leahy (2015) 'Novel approach for label free super-resolution imaging in far field'. Scientific Reports, 5 (srep13274).
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Abstract
Progress in the emerging areas of science and technology, such as bio- and nano-technologies,
depends on development of corresponding techniques for imaging and probing the structures with
high resolution. Recently, the far field diffraction resolution limit in the optical range has been
circumvented and different methods of super-resolution optical microscopy have been developed.
The importance of this breakthrough achievement has been recognized by Nobel Prize for Chemistry
in 2014. However, the fluorescence based super-resolution techniques only function with fluorescent
molecules (most of which are toxic and can destroy or lead to artificial results in living biological
objects) and suffer from photobleaching. Here we show a new way to break the diffraction resolution
limit, which is based on nano-sensitivity to internal structure. Instead of conventional image
formation as 2D intensity distribution, in our approach images are formed as a result of comparison
of the axial spatial frequency profiles, reconstructed for each image point. The proposed approach
dramatically increases the lateral resolution even in presence of noise and allows objects to be
imaged in their natural state, without any labels.