Ultra-Thin Chiral Metasurface-Based Superoscillatory Lens

The metasurface-based superoscillatory lens has been demonstrated to be effective in finely tailoring the wavefront of light to generate focal spots beyond the diffraction limit in the far-field that is capable of improving the resolution of the imaging system. In this paper, an ultra-thin (0.055 λ0) metasurface-based superoscillatory lens (SOL) that can generate a sub-diffraction optical needle with a long focal depth is proposed, which is constructed by ultra-thin chiral unit cells containing two metal split-ring resonators (SRR) with a 90° twisted angle difference cladded on both sides of a 1.5 mm-thick dielectric substrate, with a high linear cross-polarized transmission coefficient around 0.9 and full phase control capability at 11 GHz. Full-wave simulation shows that SOL generates a sub-diffraction optical needle within 10.5–11.5 GHz. At the center frequency, the focal depth is 281 mm (10.3 λ0) within 105–386 mm, the full width at half maximum (FWHM) is 18.5 mm (0.68 λ0), about 0.7 times the diffraction limit, generally consistent with the theoretical result. The proposed ultra-thin chiral metasurface-based SOL holds great potential in integrating into practical imaging applications for its simple fabrication, high efficiency, and low-profile advantages.

Recent Progress in the Correlative Structured Illumination Microscopy

The super-resolution imaging technique of structured illumination microscopy (SIM) enables the mixing of high-frequency information into the optical transmission domain via light-source modulation, thus breaking the optical diffraction limit. Correlative SIM, which combines other techniques with SIM, offers more versatility or higher imaging resolution than traditional SIM. In this review, we first briefly introduce the imaging mechanism and development trends of conventional SIM. Then, the principles and recent developments of correlative SIM techniques are reviewed. Finally, the future development directions of SIM and its correlative microscopies are presented.

The effect of pupil transmittance on axial resolution of reflection phase microscopy

A reflection phase microscope (RPM) can be equipped with the capability of depth selection by employing a gating mechanism. However, it is difficult to achieve an axial resolution close to the diffraction limit in real implementation. Here, we systematically investigated the uneven interference contrast produced by pupil transmittance of the objective lens and found that it was the main cause of the practical limit that prevents the axial resolution from reaching its diffraction limit. Then we modulated the power of illumination light to obtain a uniform interference contrast over the entire pupil. Consequently, we could achieve an axial resolution fairly close to the diffraction limit set by the experimental conditions.

Distribution of sensitivity along the area of FPA pixel, limited by the diffraction limit of the scanning mask

Consideration is given to the distribution of sensitivity along the area of indium antimonide FPA pixel obtained with the aid of the nondestructive method of the scanning mask on the basis of the fast testing open probe installation.

Improved localization precision via restricting confined biomolecule stochastic motion in single-molecule localization microscopy

Single-molecule localization microscopy (SMLM) plays an irreplaceable role in biological studies, in which nanometer-sized biomolecules are hardly to be resolved due to diffraction limit unless being stochastically activated and accurately located by SMLM. For biological samples preimmobilized for SMLM, most biomolecules are cross-linked and constrained at their immobilizing sites but still expected to undergo confined stochastic motion in regard to their nanometer sizes. However, few lines of direct evidence have been reported about the detectability and influence of confined biomolecule stochastic motion on localization precision in SMLM. Here, we access the potential stochastic motion for each immobilized single biomolecule by calculating the displacements between any two of its localizations at different frames during sequential imaging of Alexa Fluor-647-conjugated oligonucleotides. For most molecules, localization displacements are remarkably larger at random frame intervals than at shortest intervals even after sample drift correction, increase with interval times and then saturate, showing that biomolecule stochastic motion is detected and confined around the immobilizing sizes in SMLM. Moreover, localization precision is inversely proportional to confined biomolecule stochastic motion, whereas it can be deteriorated or improved by enlarging the biomolecules or adding a post-crosslinking step, respectively. Consistently, post-crosslinking of cell samples sparsely stained for tubulin proteins results in a better localization precision. Overall, this study reveals that confined stochastic motion of immobilized biomolecules worsens localization precision in SMLM, and improved localization precision can be achieved via restricting such a motion.

Super-Resolution Imaging with Patchy Microspheres

The diffraction limit is a fundamental barrier in optical microscopy, which restricts the smallest resolvable feature size of a microscopic system. Microsphere-based microscopy has proven to be a promising tool for challenging the diffraction limit. Nevertheless, the microspheres have a low imaging contrast in air, which hinders the application of this technique. In this work, we demonstrate that this challenge can be effectively overcome by using partially Ag-plated microspheres. The deposited Ag film acts as an aperture stop that blocks a portion of the incident beam, forming a photonic hook and an oblique near-field illumination. Such a photonic hook significantly enhanced the imaging contrast of the system, as experimentally verified by imaging the Blu-ray disc surface and colloidal particle arrays.