436
A. V. Maslov and V. N. Astratov
role of resonantly enhanced LSPRs in achieving super-resolution in microspherical
nanoscopy.
Another way to explain the super-resolution of imaging through the microspheres
is to consider a possibility of coherent or partly coherent phenomena in illumination
or resonant photoexcitation of nanoscale objects. Coherent contributions can stem
from two different mechanisms. First, they can be related to illumination similar to
ROCS microscopy [78, 103] and other similar methods where, as an example, an
oblique illumination is used to produce a certain phase distributions along the objects.
Second, they can stem from the resonant properties of two neighboring microdisks or
other similar plasmonic objects which can be resonantly coupled producing bonding
and antibonding modes. Such coupled systems are well known for their photonic
counterparts—photonic molecules [104]. If the objects reemit at the frequencies of
these modes, which can take place naturally in the case of broadband excitation,
the visibility and resolution of different features should change drastically. In-phase
oscillations in closely spaced objects reduce the visibility of the gaps separating these
objects below the classical diffraction limit for incoherent point sources, whereas outof-phase oscillations allow one to observe the zero-intensity point in the center of
the gap even for infinitely small gaps [80].
In conclusion, this chapter introduces the basic physical principles of superresolution mechanisms in microspherical nanoscopy. It is a dynamic area where
new concepts such as LPSIM [57] and coupling of FL objects to LPSRs in the underlying plasmonic metasurfaces [44, 100–102] were proposed recently. The fusing of
nanoplasmonics with photonics imaging mechanisms underlies the developments in
this area toward ever increasing spatial resolution.
Acknowledgements The authors would like to thank Aaron Brettin for useful discussions and
help with the preparation of Figs. 16.1a and 16.15c. VNA is thankful for support by Center for
Metamaterials, an NSF I/U CRC, award number 1068050.
References
1. C.J.R. Sheppard, Resolution and super-resolution. Microsc. Res. Tech. 80(6), 590–598 (2017)
2. S.W. Hell, J. Wichmann, Breaking the diffraction resolution limit by stimulated emission:
stimulated-emission-depletion fluorescence microscopy. Opt. Lett. 19(11), 780–782 (1994)
3. B. Hein, K.I. Willig, S.W. Hell, Stimulated emission depletion (STED) nanoscopy of a fluorescent protein-labeled organelle inside a living cell. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 105, 14271
(2008)
4. E. Betzig, G.H. Patterson, R. Sougrat, O.W. Lindwasser, S. Olenych, J.S. Bonifacino, M.W.
Davidson, J. Lippincott-Schwartz, H.F. Hess, Imaging intracellular fluorescent proteins at
nanometer resolution. Science 313(5793), 1642–1645 (2006)
5. H. Shroff, C.G. Galbraith, J.A. Galbraith, E. Betzig, Live-cell photoactivated localization
microscopy of nanoscale adhesion dynamics. Nat. Methods 5, 417 (2008)
6. S.M. Mansfield, G.S. Kino, Solid immersion microscope. Appl. Phys. Lett. 57(24), 2615–2616
(1990)
7. M.G.L. Gustafsson, Surpassing the lateral resolution limit by a factor of two using structured
illumination microscopy. J. Microsc. 198(2), 82–87 (2000)
A. V. Maslov and V. N. Astratov
role of resonantly enhanced LSPRs in achieving super-resolution in microspherical
nanoscopy.
Another way to explain the super-resolution of imaging through the microspheres
is to consider a possibility of coherent or partly coherent phenomena in illumination
or resonant photoexcitation of nanoscale objects. Coherent contributions can stem
from two different mechanisms. First, they can be related to illumination similar to
ROCS microscopy [78, 103] and other similar methods where, as an example, an
oblique illumination is used to produce a certain phase distributions along the objects.
Second, they can stem from the resonant properties of two neighboring microdisks or
other similar plasmonic objects which can be resonantly coupled producing bonding
and antibonding modes. Such coupled systems are well known for their photonic
counterparts—photonic molecules [104]. If the objects reemit at the frequencies of
these modes, which can take place naturally in the case of broadband excitation,
the visibility and resolution of different features should change drastically. In-phase
oscillations in closely spaced objects reduce the visibility of the gaps separating these
objects below the classical diffraction limit for incoherent point sources, whereas outof-phase oscillations allow one to observe the zero-intensity point in the center of
the gap even for infinitely small gaps [80].
In conclusion, this chapter introduces the basic physical principles of superresolution mechanisms in microspherical nanoscopy. It is a dynamic area where
new concepts such as LPSIM [57] and coupling of FL objects to LPSRs in the underlying plasmonic metasurfaces [44, 100–102] were proposed recently. The fusing of
nanoplasmonics with photonics imaging mechanisms underlies the developments in
this area toward ever increasing spatial resolution.
Acknowledgements The authors would like to thank Aaron Brettin for useful discussions and
help with the preparation of Figs. 16.1a and 16.15c. VNA is thankful for support by Center for
Metamaterials, an NSF I/U CRC, award number 1068050.
References
1. C.J.R. Sheppard, Resolution and super-resolution. Microsc. Res. Tech. 80(6), 590–598 (2017)
2. S.W. Hell, J. Wichmann, Breaking the diffraction resolution limit by stimulated emission:
stimulated-emission-depletion fluorescence microscopy. Opt. Lett. 19(11), 780–782 (1994)
3. B. Hein, K.I. Willig, S.W. Hell, Stimulated emission depletion (STED) nanoscopy of a fluorescent protein-labeled organelle inside a living cell. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 105, 14271
(2008)
4. E. Betzig, G.H. Patterson, R. Sougrat, O.W. Lindwasser, S. Olenych, J.S. Bonifacino, M.W.
Davidson, J. Lippincott-Schwartz, H.F. Hess, Imaging intracellular fluorescent proteins at
nanometer resolution. Science 313(5793), 1642–1645 (2006)
5. H. Shroff, C.G. Galbraith, J.A. Galbraith, E. Betzig, Live-cell photoactivated localization
microscopy of nanoscale adhesion dynamics. Nat. Methods 5, 417 (2008)
6. S.M. Mansfield, G.S. Kino, Solid immersion microscope. Appl. Phys. Lett. 57(24), 2615–2616
(1990)
7. M.G.L. Gustafsson, Surpassing the lateral resolution limit by a factor of two using structured
illumination microscopy. J. Microsc. 198(2), 82–87 (2000)