Premium
Microscopy beyond the diffraction limit using actively controlled single molecules
Author(s) -
MOERNER W.E.
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
journal of microscopy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.569
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1365-2818
pISSN - 0022-2720
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2818.2012.03600.x
Subject(s) - diffraction , resolution (logic) , microscopy , optics , nanoscopic scale , materials science , limit (mathematics) , nanotechnology , molecule , chemistry , computer science , physics , artificial intelligence , mathematics , mathematical analysis , organic chemistry
Summary In this short review, the general principles are described for obtaining microscopic images with resolution beyond the optical diffraction limit with single molecules. Although it has been known for several decades that single‐molecule emitters can blink or turn on and off, in recent work the addition of on/off control of molecular emission to maintain concentrations at very low levels in each imaging frame combined with sequential imaging of sparse subsets has enabled the reconstruction of images with resolution far below the optical diffraction limit. Single‐molecule active control microscopy provides a powerful window into information about nanoscale structures that was previously unavailable.