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Nanoscale resolution in the focal plane of an optical microscope.

Physical review letters (2005-05-21)
Volker Westphal, Stefan W Hell
ABSTRACT

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.

MATERIALS
Product Number
Brand
Product Description

Sigma-Aldrich
Abberior® STAR 635, NHS ester, for STED application
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Abberior® FLIP 565, maleimide, for single-molecule switching microscopy (e.g. PALM, STORM, GSDIM)
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Abberior® STAR 580, NHS ester, for STED application
Sigma-Aldrich
Abberior® STAR 440SXP, maleimide, for long Stokes STED and 2-color STED application
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Abberior® STAR 440SXP, NHS ester, for long Stokes STED and 2-color STED application
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Abberior® STAR 512, maleimide, for STED application