Nanoparticle-assisted stimulated-emission-depletion nanoscopy.

Sivan, Yonatan; Sonnefraud, Yannick; Kéna-Cohen, Stéphane; Pendry, John B; Maier, Stefan A · ACS Nano · 2012

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

We show that metal nanoparticles can be used to improve the performance of super-resolution fluorescence nanoscopes based on stimulated-emission-depletion (STED). Compared with a standard STED nanoscope, we show theoretically a resolution improvement by more than an order of magnitude, or equivalently, depletion intensity reductions by more than 2 orders of magnitude and an even stronger photostabilization. Our scheme may allow improvement of existing STED nanoscopes and assist in the development of low-power, low-cost nanoscopes. This has the potential to increase the availability of STED nanoscopes and lead to a significant expansion of our understanding of biological and biochemical phenomena occurring on the nanoscale.

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