Full-Field Near-Field Optical Microscope for Cell Imaging

Thomas Barroca, Karla Balaa, Sandrine Lévêque-Fort, and Emmanuel Fort
Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 218101 – Published 22 May 2012

Abstract

We report a new full-field fluorescence microscopy method for imaging live cell membranes based on supercritical near-field emission. This technique consists of extracting the self-interference between undercritical and supercritical light by simple image subtraction. In the objective back focal plane, this is equivalent to adding a virtual mask blocking the subcritical emission. We show that this virtual mask is radically different from a real physical mask, enabling a 100 nm axial confinement and enhancing the image sensitivity without damaging the lateral resolution. This technique is easy to implement and simultaneously provides images of the inner parts of the cell and its membrane with standard-illumination light.

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  • Received 5 January 2012

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.108.218101

© 2012 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Thomas Barroca1, Karla Balaa1,2, Sandrine Lévêque-Fort2, and Emmanuel Fort1

  • 1Centre d’Imageries Plasmoniques Appliquées, Institut Langevin, Ecole Supérieure de Physique et de Chimie Industrielles (ESPCI) ParisTech, CNRS UMR 7587, Université Paris Diderot, 10 rue Vauquelin, 75231 Paris Cedex 05, France
  • 2Institut des Sciences Moléculaires d’Orsay and Centre de photonique Biomédicale (CLUPS), Université Paris-Sud 11, CNRS UMR 8214, F91405 Orsay cedex, France

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Vol. 108, Iss. 21 — 25 May 2012

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