PMID-27934860 Scanning superlens microscopy for non-invasive large field-of-view visible light nanoscale imaging
- Recently, the diffraction barrier has been surpassed by simply introducing dielectrics with a micro-scale spherical configuration when using conventional optical microscopes by transforming evanescent waves into propagating waves. 18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30
- The resolution of this superlens-based microscopy has been decreased to ∼50 nm (ref. 26) from an initial resolution of ∼200 nm (ref. 21).
- This method can be further enhanced to ∼25 nm when coupled with a scanning laser confocal microscope 31.
- It has achieved fast development in biological applications, as the sub-diffraction-limited resolution of high-index liquid-immersed microspheres has now been demonstrated23,32, enabling its application in the aqueous environment required to maintain biological activity.
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- Microlens is a 57 um diameter BaTiO3 microsphere, resolution of lambda / 6.3 under partial and inclined illumination
- Microshpere is in contact with the surface during imaging, by gluing it to the cantilever tip of an AFM.
- Get an image with the microsphere-lens, which improves imaging performance by ~ 200x. (with a loss in quality, naturally).
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