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Nanoscale Resolution in the Focal Plane of an Optical Microscope
Open accessAbstract
Utilizing single fluorescent molecules as probes, we prove the ability of a far-field microscope to attain spatial resolution down to 16 nm in the focal plane, corresponding to about 1/50 of the employed wavelength. The optical bandwidth expansion by nearly an order of magnitude is realized by a saturated depletion through stimulated emission of the molecular fluorescent state. We demonstrate that en route to the molecular scale, the resolving power increases with the square root of the saturation level, which constitutes a new law regarding the resolution of an emerging class of far-field light microscopes that are not limited by diffraction.
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Citations
Cited by
Hell, S. W. (2007) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.1137395 · Cited by 2,967
Self-citationSuper-resolution fluorescence microscopy
Huang, B., Bates, M., & Zhuang, X. (2009) · Annual Review of Biochemistry · doi:10.1146/annurev.biochem.77.061906.092014 · Cited by 1,657
Three‐dimensional optical laser lithography beyond the diffraction limit
Fischer, J., & Wegener, M. (2013) · Laser & Photonics Reviews · doi:10.1002/lpor.201100046 · Cited by 709
Macromolecular-scale resolution in biological fluorescence microscopy
Donnert, G., Keller, J., Medda, R., Andrei, M. A., Rizzoli, S. O., Lührmann, R., Jahn, R., Eggeling, C., & Hell, S. W. (2006) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.0604965103 · Cited by 527
Self-citationDennis, M. R., King, R. P., Jack, B., O’Holleran, K., & Padgett, M. J. (2010) · Nature Physics · doi:10.1038/nphys1504 · Cited by 486
Metadata
- Authors
- Westphal, V., & Hell, S. W.
- Venue
- Physical Review Letters
- Publisher
- American Physical Society (APS)
- Published
- 2005-04-15
- Volume
- 94
- Issue
- 14
- Pages
- 143903-143903
- ISSN
- 0031-9007 (ISSN-L)
- 1079-7114
- OpenAlex
- W1972259822
- Cited by
- 502
- References
- 0
- FWCI
- 20.28
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
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