Chapter 10
Super-Resolution Imaging Based
on Nonlinear Plasmonic Scattering
Tushar C. Jagadale and Shi-Wei Chu
Abstract During the last two decades, the resolution limit was well overcome
by manipulating nonlinearity of fluorescence emission, including on/off switching
and saturation, enabling resolution below 100 nm. However, fluorescence suffers
from intrinsic photo-bleaching, which aggravates with repeated excitation for on/off
switching or strong incident power for achieving saturation. Therefore, it is more
than desirable to develop super-resolution imaging modality based on an alternative contrast agent without bleaching, such as scattering. An attractive candidate
is scattering from surface plasmon resonance (SPR) nanostructures, whose scattering intensity is particularly strong, and can be spectrally tuned by structure. In this
chapter, we review recent finding of nonlinear scattering, including saturation, reverse
saturation, and all-optical switching, in an isolated plasmonic nanostructure. These
nonlinear behaviours have been successfully applied to imaging, bringing spatial resolution down to nearly λ/10, which is enough to resolve surface plasmon polariton
in nanoscale optoelectronic devices without labelling. Potential applications range
from bio-medical imaging and functional plasmonic nanostructures. Our results are
expected to be a stimulating example in finding more exotic contrast agency for
improving optical resolution.
T. C. Jagadale · S.-W. Chu (B)
Department of Physics, National Taiwan University, No.1, Sec. 4, Roosevelt Rd., Taipei 10617,
Taiwan (R.O.C.)
e-mail: swchu@phys.ntu.edu.tw
T. C. Jagadale
Technical Physics Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai 400085, India
S.-W. Chu
Molecular Imaging Centre, National Taiwan University, No.1, Sec. 4, Roosevelt Rd., Taipei
10617, Taiwan (R.O.C.)
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019
V. Astratov (ed.), Label-Free Super-Resolution Microscopy,
Biological and Medical Physics, Biomedical Engineering,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-21722-8_10
239
Super-Resolution Imaging Based
on Nonlinear Plasmonic Scattering
Tushar C. Jagadale and Shi-Wei Chu
Abstract During the last two decades, the resolution limit was well overcome
by manipulating nonlinearity of fluorescence emission, including on/off switching
and saturation, enabling resolution below 100 nm. However, fluorescence suffers
from intrinsic photo-bleaching, which aggravates with repeated excitation for on/off
switching or strong incident power for achieving saturation. Therefore, it is more
than desirable to develop super-resolution imaging modality based on an alternative contrast agent without bleaching, such as scattering. An attractive candidate
is scattering from surface plasmon resonance (SPR) nanostructures, whose scattering intensity is particularly strong, and can be spectrally tuned by structure. In this
chapter, we review recent finding of nonlinear scattering, including saturation, reverse
saturation, and all-optical switching, in an isolated plasmonic nanostructure. These
nonlinear behaviours have been successfully applied to imaging, bringing spatial resolution down to nearly λ/10, which is enough to resolve surface plasmon polariton
in nanoscale optoelectronic devices without labelling. Potential applications range
from bio-medical imaging and functional plasmonic nanostructures. Our results are
expected to be a stimulating example in finding more exotic contrast agency for
improving optical resolution.
T. C. Jagadale · S.-W. Chu (B)
Department of Physics, National Taiwan University, No.1, Sec. 4, Roosevelt Rd., Taipei 10617,
Taiwan (R.O.C.)
e-mail: swchu@phys.ntu.edu.tw
T. C. Jagadale
Technical Physics Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai 400085, India
S.-W. Chu
Molecular Imaging Centre, National Taiwan University, No.1, Sec. 4, Roosevelt Rd., Taipei
10617, Taiwan (R.O.C.)
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019
V. Astratov (ed.), Label-Free Super-Resolution Microscopy,
Biological and Medical Physics, Biomedical Engineering,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-21722-8_10
239