Super-resolution microscopy

Super-resolution microscopy is a series of techniques in optical <a href="/facts/Microscopy/GpHlElDS">microscopy</a> that allow such images to have <a href="/facts/Optical_resolution/TcLkPYFw">resolutions</a> higher than those imposed by the <a href="/facts/Diffraction-limited_system/7z2lL7Rt">diffraction limit</a>, which is due to the <a href="/facts/Diffraction/Mk80xXHT">diffraction</a> of light. Super-resolution imaging techniques rely on the <a href="/facts/Electromagnetic_radiation/Ynx7ujCW">near-field</a> (photon-tunneling microscopy as well as those that use the <a href="/facts/Superlens/BFx2JyBD">Pendry Superlens</a> and <a href="/facts/Near_field_scanning_optical_microscopy/D844weAD">near field scanning optical microscopy</a>) or on the <a href="/facts/Near_and_far_field/wS2Dp5lv">far-field</a>. Among techniques that rely on the latter are those that improve the resolution only modestly (up to about a factor of two) beyond the diffraction-limit, such as <a href="/facts/Confocal_microscopy/Gh7pY9Cl">confocal microscopy</a> with closed pinhole or aided by computational methods such as deconvolution or detector-based pixel reassignment (e.g. re-scan microscopy, pixel reassignment), the <a href="/facts/4Pi_Microscope/m2dW57k3">4Pi microscope</a>, and structured-illumination microscopy technologies such as SIM and <a href="/facts/Vertico_SMI/873C7Bd0">SMI</a>.
There are two major groups of methods for super-resolution microscopy in the far-field that can improve the resolution by a much larger factor:

<ol><li>Deterministic super-resolution: the most commonly used emitters in biological microscopy, <a href="/facts/Fluorophores/wDWBmYhn">fluorophores</a>, show a nonlinear response to excitation, which can be exploited to enhance resolution. Such methods include <a href="/facts/STED_microscopy/hpTVcqBz">STED</a>, <a href="/facts/GSD_microscopy/owqeUsp5">GSD</a>, <a href="/facts/RESOLFT/7oMzkc9l">RESOLFT</a> and SSIM.</li>
<li>Stochastic super-resolution: the chemical complexity of many molecular light sources gives them a complex temporal behavior, which can be used to make several nearby fluorophores emit light at separate times and thereby become resolvable in time. These methods include <a href="/facts/Super-resolution_optical_fluctuation_imaging/KocbJrvx">super-resolution optical fluctuation imaging</a> (SOFI) and all single-molecule localization methods (SMLM), such as <a href="/facts/Vertico_SMI/873C7Bd0">SPDM</a>, <a href="/facts/Vertico_SMI/873C7Bd0">SPDMphymod</a>, <a href="/facts/Photoactivated_localization_microscopy/gUEXfDQj">PALM</a>, FPALM, STORM, and dSTORM.</li></ol>
On 8 October 2014, the <a href="/facts/Nobel_Prize_in_Chemistry/8Nb8Ajjy">Nobel Prize in Chemistry</a> was awarded to <a href="/facts/Eric_Betzig/r8Uw4Vt6">Eric Betzig</a>, <a href="/facts/W.E._Moerner/RngT2ndI">W.E. Moerner</a> and <a href="/facts/Stefan_Hell/EL9ey7nH">Stefan Hell</a> for "the development of super-resolved <a href="/facts/Fluorescence_microscopy/eMwIdrRR">fluorescence microscopy</a>", which brings "<a href="/facts/Optical_microscopy/5700vcna">optical microscopy</a> into the <a href="/facts/Nanoscopic_scale/hyFgwMKM">nanodimension</a>". The different modalities of super-resolution microscopy are increasingly being adopted by the biomedical research community, and these techniques are becoming indispensable tools to understanding biological function at the molecular level.

Super-resolution microscopy open-in-new

Super-resolution microscopy